14.1.2012   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 13/6

1.

Is Article 6(2) of the Employment Directive (1) to be interpreted as meaning that Member States may provide only that the fixing of age limits for access or entitlement to benefits under occupational social security schemes does not constitute discrimination in so far as those social security schemes relate to retirement or invalidity benefits?

2.

Is Article 6(2) to be interpreted as meaning that the possibility of fixing age limits concerns only access to the scheme, or is the provision to be interpreted as meaning that the possibility of fixing age limits also concerns entitlement to the payment of benefits under the scheme?

3.

If question 1 is answered in the negative:

Can the expression ‘occupational social security schemes’ in Article 6(2) include a scheme such as the ‘rådighedsløn’ (availability pay) as referred to in section 32(1) of the Danish Law on Civil Servants (Tjenestemandslov), under which a civil servant may, as special protection in the event of redundancy due to the abolition of his post, retain his current salary for three years and continue to be credited for years of pensionable service, provided he remains available for assignment to another suitable post?

4.

Is Article 6(1) of the Employment Directive to be interpreted as meaning that it does not preclude a national provision such as section 32(4)(2) of the Tjenestemandslov, under which an availability salary is not paid to a civil servant who has reached the age at which the State retirement pension becomes payable, if his job has been abolished?