Edith Freers y Hannelore Speckmann contra Deutsche Bundespost.

• Jurisdiction: European Union
• Celex Number: 61993CJ0278
• ECLI: ECLI:EU:C:1996:83
• Docket Number: C-278/93
• Court: Court of Justice (European Union)
• Procedure Type: Reference for a preliminary ruling
• Date: 07 March 1996

Case C-278/93


Edith Freers and Hannelore Speckmann
v
Deutsche Bundespost


(Reference for a preliminary rulingfrom the Arbeitsgericht Bremen)

«(Indirect discrimination against women workers – Compensation for attendance at training courses providing members of staff committees with the knowledge necessary for performing their functions)»

Opinion of Advocate General Darmon delivered on 5 July 1994

Judgment of the Court (Sixth Chamber), 7 March 1996

Summary of the Judgment

1..

Social policy – Men and women workers – Equal pay – Pay – Concept – Compensation for taking part in staff representation – Included

(EEC Treaty, Art. 119; Council Directive 75/117)

2..

Social policy – Men and women workers – Equal pay – Compensation for loss of earnings due to attendance at training courses for staff committee members held during full-time working hours – National rules limiting compensation for part-time employees attending courses to their individual working hours – Difference of treatment compared with full-time employees attending courses – Part-time staff consisting mainly of women – Different treatment not permissible without objective justification

(EEC Treaty, Art. 119; Council Directive 75/117)

1.

The concept of pay within the meaning of Article 119 of the Treaty and Directive 75/117 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the application of the principle of equal pay for men and women comprises any consideration, whether in cash or in kind, whether immediate or future, provided that the worker receives it, albeit indirectly, in respect of his employment from his employer, and irrespective of whether the worker receives it under a contract of employment, by virtue of legislative provisions or on a voluntary basis. It includes compensation paid to a male or female worker for taking part in statutorily established staff representation. Although such compensation does not derive as such from the contract of employment, it nevertheless constitutes a benefit paid indirectly by the employer, since it is paid by virtue of legislative provisions and under a contract of employment.

2.

Where the category of part-time workers includes a much higher number of women than men, national legislation which, not being suitable and necessary for achieving a legitimate social policy aim, has the effect of limiting to their individual working hours the compensation which staff committee members employed on a part-time basis are to receive from their employer for attending training courses which impart the knowledge necessary for serving on staff committees and are held during the full-time working hours applicable in the undertaking but which exceed their individual part-time working hours, when staff committee members employed on a full-time basis receive compensation for attendance at the same courses on the basis of their full-time working hours, contravenes the prohibition of indirect discrimination in the matter of pay laid down by Article 119 of the Treaty and Directive 75/117 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the application of the principle of equal pay for men and women.

JUDGMENT OF THE COURT (Sixth Chamber)
7 March 1996 (1)

((Indirect discrimination against women workers – Compensation for attendance at training courses providing members of staff committees with the knowledge necessary for performing their functions))

In Case C-278/93,

REFERENCE to the Court under Article 177 of the EEC Treaty by the Arbeitsgericht Bremen, Germany, for a preliminary ruling in the proceedings pending before that court between Edith Freers, Hannelore Speckmann

and

Deutsche Bundespost on the interpretation of Article 119 of the EEC Treaty and of Council Directive 75/117/EEC of 10 February 1975 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the application of the principle of equal pay for men and women (OOJ 1975 L 45, p. 19),

THE COURT (Sixth Chamber),,

composed of: C.N. Kakouris, President of the Chamber, G.F. Mancini, F.A. Schockweiler, P.J.G. Kapteyn and J.L. Murray (Rapporteur), Judges, Advocate General: M. Darmon,
Registrar: H. von Holstein, Deputy Registrar,

after considering the written observations submitted on behalf of:

─

the German Government, by Ernst Röder, Ministerialrat in the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs, and Claus-Dieter Quassowski, Regierungsdirektor in that ministry, acting as Agents,

─

the Commission of the European Communities, by Karen Banks, of its Legal Service, and Horstpeter Kreppel, a national civil servant seconded to the Commission's Legal Service, acting as Agents,

having regard to the Report for the Hearing,

after hearing the oral observations of Edith Freers and Hannelore Speckmann, represented by Klaus Lörcher, Justitiar der Deutschen Postgewerkschaft ─ Hauptvorstand, the German Government, represented by Ernst Röder, and the Commission, represented by Horstpeter Kreppel, at the hearing on 28 April 1994,

after hearing the Opinion of the Advocate General at the sitting on 5 July 1994,

gives the following

Judgment

1

By order of 5 May 1993, received at the Court on 14 May 1993, the Arbeitsgericht Bremen (Bremen Labour Court) referred to the Court for a preliminary ruling under Article 177 of the EEC Treaty three questions on the interpretation of Article 119 of the EEC Treaty and of Council Directive 75/117/EEC of 10 February 1975 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the application of the principle of equal pay for men and women (OJ 1975 L 45, p. 19, hereinafter the Directive).

2

Those questions were raised in proceedings between Edith Freers and Hannelore Speckmann (hereinafter the plaintiffs) and Deutsche Bundespost (hereinafter the defendant) concerning compensation for the time spent by the plaintiffs on...