Keywords
Summary

Keywords

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1. Social policy ° Equal treatment for men and women in matters of social security ° Scope ratione personae of Directive 79/7 ° Working population within the meaning of Article 2 of the directive ° Persons in minor employment characterized by a limited number of working hours and low pay ° Included

(Council Directive 79/7, Art. 2)

2. Social policy ° Equal treatment for men and women in matters of social security ° Directive 79/7 ° National legislation excluding minor and short-term employment from the compulsory sickness and old-age insurance schemes and from the obligation to contribute to the unemployment insurance scheme ° Provisions principally affecting women ° Objective justification ° Permissible

(Council Directive 79/7, Art. 4(1))

Summary

1. Directive 79/7 on the progressive implementation of the principle of equal treatment for men and women in matters of social security must be interpreted as meaning that persons in employment which is regarded as minor because it regularly consists of fewer than 15 hours' work a week and regularly attracts remuneration of up to one-seventh of the average monthly salary or in short-term employment characterized by the fact that it tends by its nature to be regularly limited to fewer than 18 hours a week or is so limited in advance by a contract of employment, form part of the working population within the meaning of Article 2 of that directive and therefore fall within its scope ratione personae.

The fact that a person' s earnings from employment do not cover all his needs cannot prevent him from being under Community law a worker or a member of the working population.

2. Article 4(1) of Directive 79/7 on the progressive implementation of the principle of equal treatment for men and women in matters of social security must be interpreted as meaning that national provisions under which employment regularly consisting of fewer than 15 hours a week and regularly attracting remuneration of up to one-seventh of the monthly reference amount is excluded from compulsory insurance under the statutory sickness and old-age insurance schemes, and national provisions under which employment which tends by its nature to be regularly limited to fewer than 18 hours a week or is so limited in advance by a contract of employment is excluded from the obligation to contribute to the statutory unemployment insurance scheme, do not constitute discrimination on grounds of sex, even where the relevant provisions affect considerably more women than men, since the national legislature was reasonably entitled to consider that the legislation in question was necessary in order to achieve a social policy aim unrelated to any discrimination on grounds of sex.

That will be the case where the exclusion of such employment from compulsory insurance corresponds to a structural principle of a contributory social security scheme, is the only means of satisfying a social demand for such employment and is designed to avoid an increase in unlawful employment and devices circumventing social legislation.