Religious holidays for the non-religious? Cresco Investigations v Achatzi

Abstract

The question of time off for religious holidays raised its head again in Cresco Investigations v Achatzi. The facts though did not involve the previously considered, but thorny, question of whether it would be indirectly discriminatory to deny a religious employee time off to perform religious activities but whether it was directly discriminatory for legislation to provide an extra day of leave, or double pay if the employee worked on that day, for members of particular religious communities only. The answer to this, perhaps not surprisingly, was that to do so was discriminatory, and could not be defended on the basis that it protected the rights and freedoms of others. Given the law’s clear privileging of some religious groups above others for little objective reason it is hard to see what other conclusion the court could have reached given that what was at stake was not merely a day off but extra payment if an employee chose to work that day. Nevertheless, this case is important because it raised technical but potentially extremely far ranging questions on the horizontal direct effect of Directives and the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms.

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ORCID for Megan Pearson: orcid.org/0000-0002-5330-4812

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