Around one hundred and fifty people gathered on Wednesday in Nancy to demand the withdrawal of a neutrality clause imposed on two employees of the Accueil et Réinsertion Sociale (ARS) association. They risk dismissal if they refuse to remove their veil.
While a board meeting was held in the association’s premises, shutters closed, the crowd maintained the pressure with slogans, whistles and claps. “We are here”, they regularly chanted to signal their presence and their determination to the members of the office, locked inside.
The demonstration took place peacefully, without a police presence. “Secularism, diversity, pride”, “Shame”, or even “No to the dissolution of values”, could be read on the signs held up by company employees as well as activists and trade unionists who came to provide their support. The two employees were not present. “The consequences of the media coverage and all the unpleasant comments noted under the press articles are, I imagine, very badly experienced by these two women,” noted Philippe Blouet, specialized educator and South union representative within the association.
“Secularism and neutrality are two pillar principles”
Still on sick leave, neither of them has commented to date on the three choices offered to them by the president of the association: namely removing their veil, leaving the company via a conventional termination or being fired. The two employees requested an estimate of the compensation in the event of termination of their contract or dismissal while the board of directors stressed that it had not initiated, at this stage, any dismissal procedure.
“It seems to me that secularism and neutrality are two pillar principles,” declared the president of the association, Valérie Jurin. We think we will be able to draft a charter on secularism within our association. » The neutrality clause of the new internal regulations, validated at the end of December and put in place on August 10, will neither be suspended nor withdrawn, according to the association.