Request for a preliminary ruling from the Bundesarbeitsgericht (Germany) lodged on 14 November 2018 — WN v Land Niedersachsen

(Case C-710/18)

(2019/C 182/03)

Language of the case: German

Referring court

Bundesarbeitsgericht

Parties to the main proceedings

Applicant: WN

Defendant: Land Niedersachsen

Question referred

Are Article 45(2) TFEU and Article 7(1) of Regulation (EU) No 492/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 April 2011 on freedom of movement for workers within the Union (1) to be interpreted as precluding a provision such as that in Paragraph 16(2) of the Tarifvertrag für den Öffentlichen Dienst der Länder (the Collective Agreement for the public sector of the Länder; ‘the TV-L’), pursuant to which the relevant professional experience acquired with the last previous employer has a privileged position in the case where an employee is allocated to the steps of a collective pay structure following re-employment as a result of that professional experience being fully acknowledged pursuant to the second sentence of Paragraph 16(2) of the TV-L, whereas only a maximum of three years of relevant professional experience acquired with other employers is taken into account pursuant to the third sentence of Paragraph 16(2) of the TV-L, if that privileged position is required under EU law by clause 4.4 of the framework agreement on fixed-term contracts concluded on 18 March 1999, which is contained in the annex to Council Directive 1999/70/EC of 28 June 1999 concerning the framework agreement on fixed-term work concluded by ETUC, UNICE and CEEP?

(1)  OJ 2011 L 141, p. 1.