In this request for a preliminary ruling from the EU Court, the referring court in Germany inquired whether a question of unlawful difference in treatment arises under EU law in the case of a national collective agreement allowing for overtime pay only for hours worked in excess of the standard working time of a full-time employee.
Directive 97/81/EC concerning the Framework Agreement on Part-Time Work and its Clause 4(1) provides that “part-time workers shall not be treated in a less favourable manner than comparable full-time workers solely because they work part time unless different treatment is justified on objective grounds.”
In its judgement the Court found that national provisions “under which the payment of overtime supplements is provided, for part-time workers, only for hours worked in excess of the normal working hours laid down for full-time workers in a comparable situation, constitutes ‘less favourable’ treatment of part-time workers, within the meaning of Clause 4(1)”.
The EU Court considers that such a difference in overtime pay for part-time and full-time workers cannot be justified by neither the objective of deterring the employer from requiring workers to work overtime in excess of the hours agreed in their employment contracts, nor by the objective of preventing full-time workers from being treated less favourably than part-time workers. Also, the Court considers that such a difference in treatment may constitute indirect discrimination on grounds of sex if it is established that the provision disadvantages a significantly higher proportion of women than men.
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