‘Hired with the hijab, fired for wearing it’: Mediapart investigation exposes mass dismissals at French corporate giant
French corporate giant quietly rewrote its own rules to dismiss veiled employees — days after using their images to promote its diversity
PARIS (MNTV) — An investigation published by the French investigative outlet Mediapart has laid bare a growing controversy at Elior-Derichebourg, one of France’s largest catering and facilities management companies, where multiple hijab-wearing employees say they were abruptly dismissed after years of working without any objection to their appearance — and after being hired while wearing the headscarf in the first place.
The report, by journalist Marie Turcan, documents a pattern in which women who had been recruited while wearing headscarves were confronted in early 2026 with a sudden change in company policy: remove the hijab during working hours or face termination for serious misconduct.
“Decision had already been made”
The investigation centres on nearly identical accounts from multiple employees. One woman, identified as Aisata, described being summoned to her manager’s office where she found a line of other veiled colleagues already waiting. She was handed an official letter stating that the display of overt religious symbols during professional duties was no longer permitted.
“I was hired with the hijab, and at that time, there was no problem,” Aisata told Mediapart. “Now they have given us just eight days to remove the hijab or leave.”
She described the pre-dismissal meeting as a formality. “They pretended our opinion mattered, but the decision had already been made. We already knew the verdict.”
Another employee echoed the same experience, saying that when she was hired she was explicitly told: “We are in 2025 — come as you are.” One of the dismissed women put it bluntly: “We are a minority, a community that can be fired, as if it’s normal.”
Diversity branding, discriminatory practice
The Mediapart investigation highlights a particularly jarring contradiction. The company had been using images of veiled employees in its own advertising to promote a programme called “Women’s Talents,” which it described as an initiative to help women advance into management positions.
One employee noted that just days before receiving her dismissal notice, the background image on the company’s computers showed a veiled woman alongside the slogan: “What if it were you? Don’t delay in advancing!”
The investigation reveals that Elior-Derichebourg amended its internal regulations on April 2, 2026 — just before the dismissal proceedings began — inserting new clauses establishing a principle of religious neutrality in private workplaces. The amendment explicitly acknowledged that as a private company, Elior-Derichebourg’s premises could not be governed by France’s constitutional principle of laïcité (secularism), which applies only to the public sector.
Yet the company simultaneously imposed its own neutrality requirement — a legal manoeuvre that critics say was designed to create a retrospective justification and block potential legal challenges from employees.
The company has stated that only two of its 120 legal entities currently apply a religious neutrality principle, and has characterised the dismissals as a limited number of individual cases involving employees who refused to comply with updated regulations. It declined to disclose the total number of employees affected.
Legal landscape
A labour law specialist consulted by Mediapart raised significant doubts about the legality of the company’s actions, pointing to two key vulnerabilities: the principle of proportionality, which constrains how far internal workplace rules can restrict fundamental freedoms, and the prohibition on indirect discrimination — which applies when a seemingly neutral rule disproportionately affects a specific group of employees.
The company has argued that the neutrality requirement is particularly relevant for employees deployed to public-service settings such as schools and hospitals, where state-sector neutrality obligations may apply.
But the Mediapart investigation suggests the scope of the dismissals extended beyond those specific settings.
Wider climate
The affair unfolds against a backdrop of sharply rising anti-Muslim sentiment in France, with official figures showing an 88 per cent increase in recorded anti-Muslim acts in 2025. Elior-Derichebourg was formed in 2023 through the merger of the catering company Elior and the services arm of the Derichebourg group, and now employs more than 130,000 people worldwide, including roughly 77,000 in France — making it one of the country’s largest private employers.
The company had previously cultivated a public image built around diversity, inclusion, and women’s advancement, a reputation that the Mediapart investigation now calls sharply into question.
The case also comes at a time when the broader legal framework around religious expression in France continues to tighten, from the school headscarf restrictions to periodic political calls to extend bans to universities and sporting events.
For the employees affected, however, the issue is not abstract policy but livelihood: women who say they were welcomed into a company as they were, and then expelled for remaining so.
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