Keywords
Summary

Keywords

Social policy - Men and women - Equal pay - Termination payment for workers who resign after the birth of a child where there is a lack of child-care facilities - Payment reduced in relation to that received by workers resigning for an important reason related to working conditions or to the employer's conduct - Whether this constitutes indirect discrimination - No indirect discrimination - Whether child-care facilities are private or operated by the public services - Irrelevant

(EC Treaty, Art. 119 (Arts 117 to 120 of the EC Treaty have been replaced by Arts 136 EC to 143 EC))

Summary

$$Article 119 of the Treaty (Articles 117 to 120 of the EC Treaty have been replaced by Articles 136 EC to 143 EC) does not preclude national legislation granting a termination payment to workers who end their employment relationship prematurely in order to take care of their children owing to a lack of child-care facilities for them, under which that payment is reduced in relation to that received, for the same actual period of employment, by workers who give notice of resignation for an important reason related to working conditions in the undertaking or to the employer's conduct.

The exclusion from the full termination payment of workers who resign from employment for reasons of maternity does not constitute an indirectly discriminatory measure, if it does not put them at a disadvantage in relation to other workers who are in an identical or similar situation. In this case, the groups to be compared are workers who resign for reasons of maternity, on the one hand, and those who resign without any important reason, on the other. Workers who resign for reasons of maternity are not to be compared with those who resign for an important reason related to working conditions in the undertaking or to the employer's conduct, since the situation of such workers - in which continued work is impossible - is in substance and origin different from the situation of workers who resign because of maternity.

The fact that in the Member State in question nurseries are mostly run by the public services or with their financial support is irrelevant in this connection.