Keywords
Summary

Keywords

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1 . Social policy - Male and female workers - Access to employment and working conditions - Equal treatment - Refusal to appoint a pregnant woman -Discrimination - No male candidates - Not material

( Council Directive 76/207, Arts 2(1 ) and 3(1 ) )

2 . Social policy - Male and female workers - Access to employment and working conditions - Equal treatment -Implementation by Member States - Choice of penalties for discrimination - Civil liability - Grounds of exemption under national law not applicable

( Council Directive 76/207 )

Summary

1 . An employer is in direct contravention of the principle of equal treatment embodied in Articles 2(1 ) and 3(1 ) of Council Directive 76/207/EEC of 9 February 1976 on the implementation of the principle of equal treatment for men and women as regards access to employment, vocational training and promotion, and working conditions if he refuses to enter into a contract of employment with a female candidate whom he considers to be suitable for the job where such refusal is based on the possible adverse consequences for him of employing a pregnant woman, owing to rules on unfitness for work adopted by the public authorities, which assimilate inability to work on account of pregnancy and confinement to inability to work on account of illness . The fact that no man applied for the job is irrelevant .

2 . Although Directive 76/207 gives the Member States, in penalizing infringement of the prohibition of discrimination, freedom to choose between the various solutions appropriate for achieving its purpose, it nevertheless requires that, where a Member State opts for a sanction forming part of the rules on civil liability, any infringement of the prohibition of discrimination suffices in itself to make the person guilty of it fully liable, and no regard may be had to the grounds of exemption envisaged by national law .