The judgement by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) stems from a case involving a former employee of a church-affiliated pregnancy counselling organization in Germany, who was dismissed after she left the Catholic Church.
The counsellor argued that her dismissal constituted unequal treatment based on religion, noting the association also employed counsellors who were not members of the Catholic Church at the time of her dismissal.
She argued that her faith was unwavering, but that she left the church for financial reasons, as the Diocese of Limburg collects additional fees from members in inter-faith marriage with high-earning spouses.
Her employer, however, viewed her departure from the church as a serious breach of loyalty under Canon Law.
The case was brought before German courts and ultimately referred by the Federal Labour Court to the ECJ for clarification of applicable EU law.
The ECJ ruled that under EU law an employee cannot be required to be part of church if the organization employs other persons without requiring them to join the church and if the employee does not act in an “antagonistic” way.
The German Federal Labour Court now has to use the ECJ’s decision as a guideline when ruling in the case.
