Judgment of the Court (Fifth Chamber) of 12 December 2013 (request for a preliminary ruling from the Cour de cassation (France)) – Frédéric Hay v Crédit agricole mutuel de Charente-Maritime et des Deux-Sèvres
(C-267/12) 1
(Directive 2000/78/EC – Equal treatment – Collective agreement which restricts a benefit in respect of pay and working conditions to employees who marry – Exclusion of partners entering into a civil solidarity pact – Discrimination based on sexual orientation)
Language of the case: French
Referring court
Cour de cassation
Parties to the main proceedings
Applicant: Frédéric Hay
Defendant: Crédit agricole mutuel de Charente-Maritime et des Deux-Sèvres
Re:
Reference for a preliminary ruling – Cour de cassation (France) – Interpretation of Article 2(2)(b) of Council Directive No 2000/78/EC of 27 November 2000 establishing a general framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation (OJ 2000 L 303, p. 16) – Admissibility of a national collective agreement which reserves an advantage in respect of pay and working conditions to employees who marry and excludes from the benefit of that advantage same-sex partners who have entered into a civil solidarity pact – Discrimination based on sexual orientation – Possibility of justifying indirect discrimination by a legitimate, appropriate and necessary aim.
Operative part of the judgment
Article 2(2)(a) of Council Directive 2000/78/EC of 27 November 2000 establishing a general framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation must be interpreted as precluding a provision in a collective agreement, such as the one at issue in the main proceedings, under which an employee who concludes a civil solidarity pact with a person of the same sex is not allowed to obtain the same benefits, such as days of special leave and a salary bonus, as those granted to employees on the occasion of their marriage, where the national rules of the Member State concerned do not allow persons of the same sex to marry, in so far as, in the light of the objective of and the conditions relating to the grant of those benefits, that employee is in a comparable situation to an employee who marries.
____________1 OJ C 250, 18.8.2012.