Konflikt między równością a wolnością religijną w prawie pracy Unii Europejskiej

The paper addresses the problem of the way in which the European Union legislation resolves the conflict between the right to be non-discriminated and the right to religious freedom, in the case of religious institutions as employers. The background to its creation are numerous cases of accusations of discrimination directed at religious institutions, as they differentiate employees or candidates for employees, following their specific criteria. The subject of the analyses contained in the paper is art. 4 of the EU Council Directive 2000/78/EC, which regulates the employment of employees by religious institutions. The analyses carried out show that Directive 2000/78/EC does not assign an absolute value neither to the right not to be discriminated nor to the right to religious freedom. Neither does it set a clear hierarchy. The conflict between them is solved on the principle of seeking balance by means of concessions made by each party. However, it can be seen that the right to be non-discriminated is more limited than the right to religious freedom. The analyses revealed the existence in the Directive of various ways of perceiving the character of religious institutions. They also show that art. 4 of the directive is an example of the principle of subsidiarity, because it takes into account the specificity and tradition of the Member States in regulating the autonomy of religious institutions, leaving the states a considerable scope to define or even modify the provisions of the Directive.