Mechanic awarded €19,000 for getting fired 3 days into employment due to his religion
The Noord-Holland court ordered a Zaandam fire prevention company to pay a mechanic almost €19,000 in compensation for firing him after three days due to his religion. The company fired the man because he asked to pray during work hours and indicated that he could not work with pigs. The court ruled that his dismissal was discriminatory and unlawful.
The 34-year-old man started working at Brand Preventie Groep in Zaandam in April. During his first days, he indicated that he had to pray once or twice a day and asked for an assigned space at clients’ premises to do so. He also indicated that he was not allowed to work at farms with pigs when he was scheduled for a job at a livestock farm.
The company fired him on his fourth day. The company said that it strived for religious neutrality and deemed it inappropriate to ask clients to give the man room to pray. The employer also deemed it too inconvenient that he could not be assigned to farms with pigs, given that the company has several livestock farmers as clients.
The mechanic took the case to court, arguing that he was dismissed due to his religion. The company argued that it fired him because he was too inflexible.
The court ruled in the mechanic’s favor. According to the court, his dismissal was “prohibited discrimination based on faith.” The court pointed out that the company had no systematic policy in place for the stated religious neutrality.
The court also said that an employer’s willingness to take a client’s wishes into account cannot be considered “a genuine and determining occupational requirement,” adding that the employer did not even ask the involved clients whether they would have a problem with providing prayer space. “In short, Brand Preventie Groep cannot invoke the client’s possible wishes (which, incidentally, are not apparent from the file) to justify the distinction.”
The court, therefore, awarded the mechanic a severance payment of almost €19,000, including a transition payment, pay for the notice payment, and compensation for the wrongful dismissal.
