2.2.2013   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 32/2

1.

Is the principle of pro rata temporis under Clause 4.2 of the Framework Agreement annexed to Council Directive 97/81/EC of 15 December 1997 concerning the Framework Agreement on part-time work (1), to be applied to a child allowance provided for in a collective agreement — such allowance being a social benefit provided by the employer in order to meet part of the parents’ expenses for the maintenance of the child in respect of whom the allowance is obtained — on the basis of the (appropriate) nature of that benefit?

2.

If Question 1 is answered in the negative:

Is Clause 4.1 of the Framework Agreement annexed to Council Directive 97/81/EC to be interpreted as meaning that unequal treatment of part-time workers, by means of a proportionate reduction in their entitlement to child allowance according to working time, is — having regard to the social partners’ wide discretion in the determination of a particular social and economic policy objective and of the measures capable of achieving it — objectively justified on the basis that a prohibition of a proportionate grant:

3.

If Questions 1 and 2 are answered in the negative: is Article 28 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights to be interpreted as meaning that where, in a system of employment law in which substantial elements of minimum employment standards are established in accordance with the agreed social policy assessments of specially selected and qualified parties to a collective agreement, a point of detail in a collective agreement (albeit a point that breaches the European Union law principle of non-discrimination) — in this case, the proportionate grant of child allowance in the case of part-time working — is invalid (according to national practice), the penalty of invalidity extends to all the provisions of the collective agreement relating to that area (in this case, child allowance)?