In the context of proceedings concerning the right of women to maternity leave, the Court gives its first interpretation of the directive on improvements in the safety and health at work of pregnant workers and workers who have recently given birth or are breastfeeding.
Six employees of the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) applied to the Industrial Tribunal, Manchester, for a declaration that certain clauses of their employment contracts were void or unenforceable in so far as they discriminated against female workers and were thus contrary to the Community provisions concerning, respectively, equal pay, equal treatment as regards working conditions and improvements in the safety and health at work of pregnant workers and workers who have recently given birth or are breastfeeding. The Industrial Tribunal decided to stay proceedings and referred several questions to the Court concerning the compatibility of some of the contested clauses with Community law.
Certain clauses of the employment contracts in question, concerning pay and the right to maternity leave, were more favourable to the employees concerned than the minimum provisions laid down under British law. However the right to benefit from those clauses was subject to certain conditions.
In its judgment the Court examined the five contested clauses in turn in the light of Community law.
The Court considered that a clause in an employment contract which makes the application of a more favourable maternity scheme than the statutory scheme conditional on the pregnant woman's returning to work after the birth of the child, failing which she is required to repay the difference between the contractual maternity pay and the statutory payments in respect of that leave, did not constitute discrimination on grounds of sex.
Next the Court held that the right to the minimum period of 14 weeks' maternity leave provided for by the directive is one which may be waived by workers (with the exception of the two weeks' compulsory maternity leave). Nevertheless, if a woman becomes ill during the period of statutory maternity leave and places herself under the (more favourable) sick leave arrangements, and the sick leave terminates before the expiry of the period of maternity leave, the period of sick leave does not affect the duration of the maternity leave, which continues until the end of the period of 14 weeks initially determined.
It is not contrary to Community law to limit the accrual of annual leave to the period of 14 weeks' maternity leave. By contrast, it is contrary to Community law to limit, in the context of an occupational scheme wholly financed by the employer, the accrual of pension rights during the 14 weeks' maternity leave to the period during which the woman receives pay.
Finally, although an employment contract may provide for a period of supplementary unpaid maternity leave, it cannot, without infringing Community law, limit the period during which pension rights accrue to the period of paid leave.
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Court of Justice. Languages available: English and French.
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