The Discrimination Racket in Salzburg

Our Austrian correspondent AMT referred us to the news article below about Multiculturalism run amok in Salzburg, and included this note about the case:

This is an unbelievable story, proving the idiocy of the EU’s anti-discrimination laws. A shopkeeper can no longer choose his employees — something we’ve heard of before — but what makes this story unique is not the migration background of the alleged victim, but the migration background of the perpetrator.

However, to set the record straight: The “victim” was a Muslim girl, and the main reason for not hiring her was her lack of mathematical skills. Her father deemed the employer’s rejection unacceptable and found the right people to sue successfully.

Once again, the roles of the victims were reversed. Thanks to the European Union, a community of (Islamic) values.

Many thanks to JLH for translating the article from Kronen Zeitung:

Discrimination Verdict Against Store in Salzburg Old City

February 27, 2011
by Robert Redtenbache

A verdict by the Equal Treatment Commission in Vienna has caused an uproar in Salzburg. A businesswoman in the Old City forbade an apprentice from wearing a headscarf and — for her protection — long skirts, and was summarily convicted of discrimination. The Vienna commission’s verdict is potentially explosive: the businesswoman was doubly reprimanded — for “discrimination on the grounds of religion and ethnicity.”

The woman runs a business in the Old City where salespeople wear colorful T-shirts and black pants. And the owner — herself an immigrant — wanted to give a young Austrian with Turkish roots an opportunity.

Headscarves were, of course, not allowed for salespeople. Long skirts were also not allowed because employees had to go to the cellar several times a day, by way of steep stairs and a ladder. “It is a matter of safety. I am liable if anything happens,” says the shop owner.

The Headscarf Was not the Problem

But the young woman did not get the apprenticeship. “She was much too poor at doing arithmetic in her head, and above all, too timid. She just could not approach the customers,” the boss describes it. “The headscarf was not the problem.”

This changed radically. First, the apprentice’s father berated the woman, and then wild accusations followed at the commission in Vienna. It was claimed that she ordered the girl — who had an Austrian passport — to pretend to be an Austrian, and gave her a false first name. “Those are all completely baseless accusations,” says the appalled boss. Nonetheless, she was convicted. The commission considers an instance of discrimination to be credible, because “a presumably conservative public” frequents Salzburg’s Old City.

Lawyer: “The Verdict is a Scandal”

Lawyer and FP party group leader, Dr. Andreas Schöppl is stunned: “If the staff in a pub has to wear the [native] garb and dirndl, a headscarf is not possible in that case, too. The verdict is a scandal. That, of all people, a woman with an immigration background should be convicted of discrimination fits perfectly with the head-in-the-clouds authorities in the chancellor’s office.”

For a complete listing of previous enrichment news, see The Cultural Enrichment Archives.