Judgment of the Court (Second Chamber) of 16 January 2014 (request for a preliminary ruling from the Oberlandesgericht Innsbruck - Austria) – Siegfried Pohl v ÖBB-Infrastruktur AG
(Case C-429/12) 1
(Request for a preliminary ruling – Equal treatment in employment and occupation – Article 21 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union – Article 45 TFEU – Directive 2000/78/EC – Difference in treatment on grounds of age – Determination of the reference date for the purposes of advancement on the salary scale – Limitation period – Principle of effectiveness)
Language of the case: German
Referring court
Oberlandesgericht Innsbruck
Parties to the main proceedings
Applicant: Siegfried Pohl
Defendant: ÖBB-Infrastruktur AG
Re:
Request for a preliminary ruling – Oberlandesgericht Innsbruck – Interpretation of Article 6(3) TEU, Article 21 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, Article 45 TFEU and Council Directive 2000/78/EC of 27 November 2000 establishing a general framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation (OJ 2000 L 303, p. 16) – Temporal scope – Period before accession – Remuneration of employees in the rail transport sector – National legislation and collective agreement excluding the taking into account of periods of employment completed before reaching the age of 18 for the purpose of determining remuneration – Taking into account of half of the employee’s periods of employment completed after reaching the age of 18, except in the case of professional experience acquired with a ‘quasi-public’ national undertaking or with the national railway company – Limitation period.
Operative part of the judgment
European Union law, and, in particular, the principle of effectiveness, does not preclude national legislation, such as that at issue in the main proceedings, making the right of an employee to seek a reassessment of the periods of service which must be taken into account in order to fix the reference date for the purposes of advancement subject to a 30-year limitation period, which starts to run from the conclusion of the agreement on the basis of which that reference date was fixed or from the classification in an incorrect salary scale.
____________1 OJ C 9, 12.1.2013.