Succinct presentation of the facts and procedure in the main proceedings:
1 On 14 January 2019, the Collective Agreement for Ground Staff and Cabin Crew was published in the Boletín Oficial del Estado (Official State Gazette). 2 On 8 November 2022, the Sindicato de Tripulantes Auxiliares de Vuelo de Líneas Aéreas (Airline Flight Attendants’ Union: ‘STAVLA’) brought a claim in the Audiencia Nacional (National High Court, Madrid) seeking to have the amounts of the daily subsistence allowance appearing in that collective agreement declared invalid. According to STAVLA, cabin crew (the vast majority of whom are women) as a group suffer indirect discrimination on grounds of sex compared to pilots (the vast majority of whom are men) as a group. 3 Being unsure how to resolve the dispute, the National High Court decided to submit this request for a preliminary ruling.
Question referred for a preliminary ruling:
Does the fact that the company AIR NOSTRUM compensates a group such as cabin crew, where the majority of the individuals making up the group are women, for the expenses which they have to meet when travelling, other than those related to transport and accommodation, with an amount smaller than that received for the same expenses by another group of employees, such as pilots, in which the majority are men, constitute an instance of indirect discrimination on grounds of sex in relation to working conditions, contrary to European Union law and prohibited under Article 14(1)(c) of Directive 2006/54, where the reason for such different treatment lies in the fact that each group is subject to a different collective agreement, both negotiated by the same company but with different union representatives, pursuant to Article 87 of the Estatuto de los Trabajadores (Spanish Workers’ Statute; ‘the Workers’ Statute’)?
For more information and a presentation of the positions of the parties see the summary of the request for a preliminary ruling annexed below.
You have to be connected to access to our analyses.