Muslim Woman Victorious in Labor Court

Germany's highest labor court ruled Thursday that a department store wrongly fired an employee because she wanted to wear a Muslim headscarf to work.

In a decision that has implications for the way Germany integrates its growing foreign population, the Federal Labor Court said the woman's freedom of religion outweighed the department store's right to present a certain image of itself.

As part of their decision, the national court rejected a state labor court's earlier decision that business at the department store in a small town in the state of Hesse could suffer because "conservative clientele" would be scared off.

"It would have been at least reasonable for the accused to let the plaintiff work and then see if their fears are confirmed," the Erfurt court wrote in a statement.

Islam and a store's image

The 32-year-old woman had worked at the department store since 1989, most recently as a saleswoman at the perfume counter. After having her second child, the saleswoman said her Islamic belief had taken on renewed meaning in her life. She told her boss she would wear a headscarf to work in the future.

He wouldn't allow it and fired her in 1999 when she went through with her request.

In earlier trials, the department store had claimed it had a right to present a certain image to its customers. Earlier labor courts had backed the store's decision.

Hesse's state labor court said the department store had a right to require that a saleswoman’s outfit should not be “conspicuous, provocative, unusual or with a foreign-like style.”

"If I allow one Muslim employee to wear a headscarf then maybe others will wear it as well," a department store spokeswoman to the Associated Press. She said that would change the whole look of the store.

But that concern wasn't enough to outweigh the woman's freedom of religion, according to the federal court.

The decision, the second such this year, was praised by Islamic groups.

"Today's decision sends an important signal and hinders the use of the headscarf as an instrument of discrimination and exclusion," read the statement.

Scarves not allowed in the classroom

The labor court's ruling was very different from the German Administrative Court's ruling in July concerning a Stuttgart teacher fired for wearing her headscarf to work.

That court ruled that Fereshta Ludin, a German citizen of Afghan heritage, was interfering with her students’ constitutional right not to have the state influence their freedom of religion.

As Ludin was employed by the state and the headscarf was seen as a indication of her Muslim faith, the teacher was in violation. Ludin has appealed the case before Germany’s Consitutional Court.