Recent Highlights

ECJ Judgement C-586/10 (Kücük, Germany) (26-01-2012)
Clause 5 (1) on the Framework Agreement annexed to the Fixed-Term Work Directive must be interpreted as meaning that a temporary need to replace staff constitute an objective reason for the conclusion of a fixed-term contract. The bare fact that an employer may have to employ temporary replacements on a permanent basis does not mean that there is no objective reason under clause 5 (1) of the Framework Agreement or that there is misapplication within the meaning of that clause.

ECJ Judgement C-282/10 (Dominguez, France) (24-01-2012)
Article 7 (1) of the Working Time Directive (2003/88/EC) concerning certain aspects of the organization of working time must be interpreted as excluding national regulations or conventions which make claims to paid annual leave conditional on a minimum period of ten days or one months’ actual work.

Lessons from the crisis: Public consultation on corporate restructuring started by European Commission (17-01-2012)

20 weeks of maternity leave under new Maternity Leave Directive? (01-12-2012)
In a Council meeting on 1 December 2011 the progress made with regard to the Maternity Leave Directive was examined on the basis of a progress report.

ECJ Judgement C-214/10 (KHS, Germany) (22-11-2011)
Article 7 (1) of the Working Time Directive (2003/88/EC) must be interpreted as not inhibiting national provisions or practices, which limit, by a carry-over period of 15 months on the expiry of the right to paid annual leave , the gathering of claims to such leave of a worker who is unemployable for several reference periods.

ECJ Judgement C-435/10 (van Ardennen, Netherlands) (17-11-2011)
Article 3 and 4 of Employer Insolvency Directive (80/987/EEC) must be interpreted as precluding a national rule which obligates employees to register as job-seekers in the occurrence of the insolvency of their employer, in order to fully enforce their right to payment of outstanding wage claims, such as those in issue in the main proceedings.

ECJ Judgement C-123/10 (Brachner, Austria) (20-10-2011)
An annual pension adjustment scheme falls within the scope of Article 3 (1) of Council Directive 79/7/EEC of 19 December 1978 and is therefore subject to the interdiction of discrimination stipulated in Article 4 (1) of that Directive.

ECJ Judgement C-155/10 (Williams a.o., United Kingdom) (15-09-2011)
During his annual leave, a pilot has both claim on his basic salary and on his additional status- and task-obtained salary components.

ECJ Judgement C-447/09 (Prigge, Germany) (13-09-2011)
In principle the social partners can have the authority to determine measures as described in Article 2 (5) of the Equal Treatment Directive (2000/78/EC), if they are enough precisely. A measure as the automatically end of employment by reaching the age of 60 is not necessary to guarantee the public security and protection of health.

ECJ Judgement C-177/10 (Rosado Santana, Spain) (08-09-2011)
The scope of the Fixed-Term Work Directive (1999/70/EC) and the framework agreement in the annex of the Directive also contains the employment relationships towards authorities, etc., of the public sector and prohibits unequal treatment of civil servants only because they have limited contracts.

ECJ Judgement C-297/10 and C-298/10 (Hennigs and May, Germany) (08-09-2011)
A collective pay agreement for public sector employees, which determines basic pay in individual salary groups by age categories, infringes the primary-law prohibition of age discrimination as expressed by the Equal Treatment Directive (2000/78/EC).

ECJ Judgement C-108/10 (Scattolon, Italy) (06-09-2011)
A situation, in that a totality of staff is transferred from a public authority of the State to another corresponds to a transfer of an undertaking, as so contained in the Acquired Rights Directive (77/187/EEC) and (2001/23/EC).

ECJ Judgement C-159 and C-160/10 (Fuchs/Köhler, Germany) (21-07-2011)
The rules laid down in the Hessisches Beamtengesetz are compatible with Article 6 (1) of the Equal Treatment Directive (2000/78/EC), if they are necessary and adequate to pursue the goal of a balanced age distribution.

ECJ Judgement C-104/10 (Kelly, Ireland) (21-07-2011)
Neither Directive. 97/80/EC on the burden of proof in sex discrimination cases nor the Equal Treatment Directive (2002/73/EC) generally entitle an applicant for vocational training to access information about the qualifications of the other applicants based on a suspicion of discrimination. However, it is for the national court to decide whether the aim of Directive 97/80/EC requires a disclosure of such facts in individual cases.

ECJ Judgement C-310/10 (Agafiţei a.o., Romania) (07-07-2011)
The Court has decided that the reference for a preliminary ruling concerning the compatibility of Article 15 of the Racial Equality Directive (2000/43/EC) and Article 17 of the Equal Treatment Directive (2000/78/EC) with a national ruling is inadmissible.

ECJ Order C-151/10 (Dai Cugini, Belgium) (07-04-2011)
National provisions that require employers to compile and maintain numerous social security documents fall within the scope of the Part-Time Work Directive (97/81/EC) if it is ensured, that part time workers are not treated unequal.

ECJ Order C-519/09 (May, Germany) (07-04-2011)
An employee who is subject to staff regulations in a public law body whose autonomous regulations refer to the provisions applicable to public servants, falls within the scope of Article 7 (1) and (2) of the Working Time Directive (2003/88/EC).

ECJ Judgement C-273/10 (Montoya Medina, Spain) (18-03-2011)
Clause 4 of the Framework Agreement annexed to the Fixed Term Work Directive (1999/70/EC) contradicts a national legislation which penalizes post-doctoral assistant lecturers with fixed-term contracts concerning a length-of-service supplement, although their situation is comparable to post-doctoral lecturers with contracts of indefinite duration.

ECJ Order C-258/10 (Grigore, Romania) (04-03-2011)
The time during which a forester is required to carry out warden duties in a specific section of the forest for which he is liable in terms of any damage in the area under his control constitutes ‘working time’ within the meaning of Article 2 (1) of the Working Time Directive (2003/88/EC), if he is required to observe the area and be on call in case his employer requests him to perform tasks.

ECJ Judgement C-256/10 and C-261/10 (Barcenilla Fernández and Macedo Lozano, Spain) (19-05-2011)
According to Articles 3, 5 (2), 6 and 7 of the Noise at Work Directive (2003/10/EC), an employer is obliged to reduce the daily noise exposure level to less than 85 by implementing technical and/or organisational measures. Providing hearing protectors is not sufficient.

ECJ Judgement C-305/10 (Commission v Grand Duchy of Luxembourg) (07-04-2011)
By desisting to impose all required obligations, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg has breached its obligations of the Railway Working Conditions Directive (2005/47/EC).

ECJ Judgement C-147/08 (Römer, Germany) (10-05-2011)
Supplementary pension payments for persons in a registered life partnership are within the meaning of Article 3 (3) of the Equal Treatment Directive (2000/78/EC), if they constitute pay as it is defined in Article 157 TFEU.

ECJ Judgement C-236/09 (Association Belge des Consommateurs Test-Achats and Others, Belgium) (01-03-2011)
Article 5 (2) of the Gender Directive (2004/113/EC) is invalid.

ECJ Judgement C-463/09 (CLECE, Spain) (20-01-2011)
The case in which a Town Hall assumes the cleaning of its own premises and for which new staff are hired, does not fall within the scope of the Acquired Rights Directive (2001/23/EC).

ECJ Order C-272/10 (Berkizi-Nikolakaki, Greece) (18-01-2011)
Clause 8(3) of the Framework Agreement on fixed-term work, which has been annexed to Fixed Term Work Directive 1999/70/EC, is not breached if a two-month deadline is included in national legislation to convert a fixed-term contract into an open-ended contract, when no disadvantage or exclusion ensues.