Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2003:190
Date: 2003-04-02
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Social Policy
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: United Kingdom

Summary of the Judgment 
1. Social policy — Men and women — Equal pay — Article 141(1) EC — Scope — 
Workers of different sexes undertaking the same work or work of equal value — 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-256/01 
Differences identified in conditions of remuneration not attributable to a single 
source — Excluded 
(Art. 141(1) EC) 
2. Social policy — Men and women — Equal pay — Article 141(1) EC — Scope — 
Workers of different sexes undertaking the same work or work of equal value — 
Differences identified in conditions of remuneration not attributable to a single 
source — Remuneration including the right to become a member of an occupational 
pension scheme — Excluded 
(Art. 141(1) EC) 
3. Social policy — Men and women — Equal pay — Article 141(1) EC — State 
legislation making membership of a pension scheme subject to the existence of a 
contract of employment — Occupational pension scheme with a much lower 
percentage of female than male members — Meaning of worker — Not permissible 
in the absence of objective justification 
(Art. 141(1) EC) 
4. Social policy — Men and women — Equal pay — Article 141(1) EC — Scope — 
Unacceptability of State legislation — Enforceability against employers 
(Art. 141(1) EC) 
1. Article 141 EC must be interpreted as 
meaning that a woman whose contract 
of employment with an undertaking 
has not been renewed and who is 
immediately made available to her 
previous employer through another 
undertaking to provide the same ser­
vices is not entitled to rely, vis-à-vis the 
intermediary undertaking, on the prin­
ciple of equal pay, using as a basis for 
comparison the remuneration received 
for equal work or work of the same 
value by a man employed by the 
woman's previous employer. The fact 
that the level of pay received by that 
woman is influenced by the amount 
which her previous employer pays to 
the intermediary undertaking is not a 
sufficient basis for concluding that 
those two undertakings constitute a 
single source to which can be 
attributed the differences identified in 
the conditions of pay. 
(see paras 48, 50, operative part 1) 
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ALLONBY 
2. Article 141(1) EC must be interpreted 
as meaning that a woman is not 
entitled to rely on the principle of 
equal pay in order to secure entitlement 
to membership of an occupational 
pension scheme for teachers set up by 
State legislation of which only teachers 
with a contract of employment may 
become members, using as a basis for 
comparison the remuneration, includ­
ing such a right of membership, 
received for equal work or work of 
the same value by a man employed by 
the woman's previous employer. 
(see para. 57, operative part 2) 
3. In the absence of any objective justifi­
cation, the requirement, imposed by 
State legislation, of being employed 
under a contract of employment as a 
precondition for membership of a pen­
sion scheme for teachers is not appli­
cable where it is shown that, among the 
teachers who are workers within the 
meaning of Article 141(1) EC and fulfil 
all the other conditions for member­
ship, a much lower percentage of 
women than of men is able to fulfil 
that condition. The formal classifi­
cation of a self-employed person under 
national law does not change the fact 
that a person must be classified as a 
worker within the meaning of that 
article if his independence is merely 
notional. 
(see para. 79, operative part 3) 
4. Article 141(1) EC must be interpreted 
as meaning that where State legislation 
is at issue, the applicability of that 
provision vis-à-vis an undertaking is 
not subject to the condition that the 
worker concerned can be compared 
with a worker of the other sex who is 
or has been employed by the same 
employer and who has received higher 
pay for the same work or work of 
equal value. 
(see para. 84, operative part 4) 
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