Keywords
Summary

Keywords

1 Social policy - Men and women - Equal pay - Pay - Meaning - A State body's pension scheme, created by a law, covering workers and their spouses in respect of old age and constituting an advantage paid for by the employer by reason of the employment relationship - Covered

(EC Treaty, Art. 119)

2 Social policy - Men and women - Equal pay - Occupational pension scheme created by a law - Widowers' entitlement to a survivor's pension subject to conditions not applied to widows - Not permissible

(EC Treaty, Art. 119)

3 Social policy - Men and women - Equal pay - Article 119 of the Treaty - Applicability to occupational pension schemes - Right to rely on equal treatment for benefits attributable to periods of employment prior to 17 May 1990 limited by Protocol No 2 concerning Article 119 of the EC Treaty, annexed to the Treaty on European Union, to workers and their dependants who have initiated proceedings before 17 May 1990 - Proceedings brought before that date - Meaning

(EC Treaty, Art. 119, Protocol No 2)

4 Social policy - Men and women - Equal pay - Article 119 of the Treaty - Occupational pension scheme discriminating against widowers with respect to survivors' pensions - Application to widowers of the scheme applicable to widows

(EC Treaty, Art. 119)

Summary

5 A pensions scheme peculiar to a State body, such as that of the Greek State electricity company, falls within the scope of Article 119 of the Treaty and is therefore subject to the prohibition on sex discrimination laid down therein. The fact that such a scheme may have been established by law is immaterial where it concerns only a particular category of workers and the pensions paid thereunder are directly related to length of service and the last salary, characteristics which confirm that the pension is payable by reason of the employment relationship with the body in question.

Consequently, a survivor's pension under such a scheme is covered by Article 119.

6 Where a survivor's pension falls within the definition of pay for the purposes of Article 119 of the Treaty, Article 119 precludes the application of a provision of national law which makes the award of such a pension to a widower subject to special conditions which are not applied to widows, and there is no rule of Community law which could justify the maintenance in force of such a provision.

7 On a proper construction of Protocol No 2 concerning Article 119 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, Article 119 may be relied upon in proceedings initiated before 17 May 1990 in order to obtain benefits under an occupational social security scheme, even if the action was declared inadmissible on the ground that the applicant had not lodged a prior objection, where the national court has granted an extension of the period prescribed for lodging such an objection.

8 Implementation of the principle of equal pay requires that in the context of an occupational pension scheme, widowers discriminated against on grounds of sex must be granted the same advantages - a pension or survivor's benefits - as widows. Once it has found that discrimination in relation to pay exists and so long as measures for bringing about equal treatment have not been adopted by the scheme, the only proper way of complying with Article 119 is to grant the persons in the disadvantaged class the same advantages as those enjoyed by the persons in the favoured class.