Some managers who well tend to just let go

How to respond when an employee to prepare the airplane meal trays refused to touch the flasks of alcohol because he is Muslim What to do when a Communications Manager no longer wants to answer the phone after 16 hours Friday due to shabbat, even though she is responsible for preparing the annual convention of the weekend

Food taboos, wearing of the veil or the yarmulke, religious celebrations, prayers in the enterprise... issues that leave a growing number of managers poor. Because, from a strictly legal point of view, secularism is in the public service. And "religious freedom is the rule in private enterprise," recalled the high authority for combating discrimination (Halde), last April.

A tenuous border

If proselytizing is banned, the employer does is not less obliged to accept certain practices. Example, when a Muslim or Jewish employee wishes to take leave to celebrate Eid or Yom Kippur, his employer must accept or justify its refusal with evidence of possible disturbance induced by leave. Because that is the limit: religious practices should not interfere with the Organization of the work, go against the rules of hygiene and safety, or constitute a brake on the performance of the group. A coffee boy who refuses to serve women or a supermarket butcher discus to handle pork meat are thus exposed to reprimands. "The employee then refused to perform part of his professional mission." This is not acceptable, note Benjamin Blavier Association undertake IMS for the city, founded by Claude Bébéar. Some managers, who well, tend to just let go. But this is likely to create a sense of unfairness in the team. "Rest that the border is sometimes tenuous: legally, the Manager of a fashion shop may refuse that a salesperson is the sailing, believing that so clothed, it did not inspire a connected client.

Field, it is clear that the subject is still taboo. Yet to the origin of complex agreements on diversity, l ' Oréal, Casino, da Vinci and other PSA are to express their religion policy, stating modestly: "It is reflecting." And for good reason: "confusion reigns." Some companies feel that they are a secular place in the same way that the school. Others fear to open Pandora's box by addressing the subject, find Inès Dauvergne, IMS-take to the city, which has published a guide entitled "managing the religious diversity in business".

Today, adjustments are the case by case basis, without any displayed overall policy. However, the issue becomes urgent. First because applications for employees, in particular of the Muslim faith, many more. "Unlike the previous generation, which was in a logic of integration and had so little claims, youth are a matter of assertion of their identity," observes Dounia Bouza, Director of cults and Cultures Consulting.

Then, because that some visible signs of membership require a course of action clear. As the veil. The temporary working group Randstad in realized. "Our recruiters saw arrive veiled women." "They did not know how to react or what speech held in companies employing these interim", note Aline Crépin, head delegate of the Institute for equality of opportunities for Randstad, which has implemented an "equality diversity" Committee to answer questions from agencies and is preparing to edit a guide. Some companies go further: in the business of MGB Curry, workers may wear a veil, provided that it remains trapped under their construction helmet. In Britain, Ikea has designed a veil with his logo to respect the rule of the port of yellow and blue uniform.

Play down the debate

Little by little, some employers consider a collective management. Like the EDF, which has put on its intranet a calendar listing all of the religious holidays that its managers anticipate leave. Approach also required to provide, in the canteen, menus without pork, as there is no meat to vegetarians. Alternatively, comments on at EDF, not fill vending machines for sandwiches with ham or sausage.

However, according to Benjamin Blavier, the debate should be dédramatisé as daily, most applications hinder not the functioning of the company. Like ramadan, often safely managed. At Renault, in the factory of Flins, the break of end of day is offset to match the breakdown of fasting. In Curry, when ramadan takes place in summer, the whole of the workers, Muslim or not, start their day around 6: 30 p.m. instead of 8 hours. "This allows them to finish sooner and to rest." "During this period, worksite leaders shall also to better distribute the difficult tasks, to avoid that with fatigue, an accident occurs", said Robin Sappe, Director of HR development and diversity. It remains the way to go before the religious fact in its entirety is apprehended in a dispassionate manner.