Case C‑595/12

Loredana Napoli

v

Ministero della Giustizia — Dipartimento dell’Amministrazione penitenziaria

(Request for a preliminary ruling from the Tribunale amministrativo regionale per il Lazio)

‛Reference for a preliminary ruling — Social policy — Directive 2006/54/EC — Equal treatment of men and women in matters of employment and occupation — Training course for acquiring the status of a public official — Exclusion on grounds of a prolonged absence — Absence attributable to maternity leave’

Summary — Judgment of the Court (First Chamber), 6 March 2014

1. Social policy — Male and female workers — Access to employment and working conditions — Equal treatment — Vocational training course forming an integral part of the employment and which is compulsory in order to be able to be appointed definitively to a post as a civil servant and in order to benefit from an improvement in employment conditions — National legislation excluding a woman on maternity leave from such a training course while guaranteeing her the right to participate in the next training course organised, the date of which is uncertain — Unlawful

   (European Parliament and Council Directive 2006/54, Art. 15)

2. Social policy — Male and female workers — Access to employment and working conditions — Equal treatment — Article 14(2) of Directive 2006/54 — Scope — National legislation which does not limit a specified activity solely to male workers but which delays access to that activity for female workers not participating in the vocational training course as a result of maternity leave — Not included

   (European Parliament and Council Directive 2006/54, Art. 14(2))

3. Social policy — Male and female workers — Access to employment and working conditions — Equal treatment — Directive 2006/54 — Articles 14(1)(c) and 15 — Direct effect — Obligations and powers of the national courts — Non-application of national provisions to the contrary

   (European Parliament and Council Directive 2006/54, Arts 14(1)(c) and 15)

1.  Article 15 of Directive 2006/54 on the implementation of the principle of equal opportunities and equal treatment of men and women in matters of employment and occupation must be interpreted as precluding national legislation which, on grounds relating to the public interest, excludes a woman on maternity leave from a vocational training course which forms an integral part of her employment and which is compulsory in order to be able to be appointed definitively to a post as a civil servant and in order to benefit from an improvement in her employment conditions, while guaranteeing her the right to participate in the next training course organised, the date of which is nevertheless uncertain.

   The exclusion of a woman from the first training course and fact that she is subsequently prevented from participating in the examination at its end result in her losing a chance of benefitting, in the same way as her colleagues, from an improvement in working conditions and must therefore be regarded as constituting unfavourable treatment for the purposes of Article 15 of Directive 2006/54.

   Even though, depending on the circumstances, national authorities have a certain degree of discretion when adopting measures which they consider to be necessary in order to guarantee public security in a Member State, they are nevertheless required, when they lay down measures which derogate from a fundamental right, such as the equal treatment of men and women which Directive 2006/54 seeks to ensure is implemented, to observe the principle of proportionality, which is one of the general principles of EU law.

   It must be stated that the national legislation referred to above, which provides for automatic exclusion from a training course and renders it impossible to sit the examination organised at the end of that course, without account being taken, in particular, either of the stage of the course at which the absence for maternity leave takes place or of the training already received, and which merely grants the woman who has taken such leave the right to participate in a training course organised at a later, but uncertain, date, does not appear to comply with the principle of proportionality.

   (see paras 33, 35, 36, 39, operative part 1)

2.  Article 14(2) of Directive 2006/54 on the implementation of the principle of equal opportunities and equal treatment of men and women in matters of employment and occupation does not apply to national legislation which does not limit a specified activity solely to male workers but which delays access to that activity for female workers who have been unable to receive full vocational training as a result of compulsory maternity leave.

   (see para. 43, operative part 2)

3.  Article 14(1)(c), containing provisions implementing the principle of equal treatment of men and women in matters of employment and occupation, and Article 15, relating to the return from maternity leave, of Directive 2006/54 on the implementation of the principle of equal opportunities and equal treatment of men and women in matters of employment and occupation, are sufficiently clear, precise and unconditional to have direct effect.

   Therefore, those articles can be relied upon by an individual against the Member State at issue and applied by a national court in order to disapply any national provision inconsistent with those articles.

   (see paras 50, 51, operative part 3)