Clause 4(1) of the framework agreement on fixed-term work, concluded on 18 March 1999, which is annexed to Council Directive 1999/70/EC of 28 June 1999 concerning the framework agreement on fixed-term work concluded by ETUC, UNICE and CEEP, must be interpreted as not precluding national legislation which does not provide for payment of any compensation to workers employed under fixed-term employment contracts concluded to replace a worker who has a reserved right to his post, such as the temporary replacement contract at issue in the main proceedings, on expiry of the period for which those contracts were concluded, although compensation is granted to permanent workers when their employment contract is terminated on an objective ground.

Indeed, it follows from the definition of a fixed-term contract in Clause 3(1) of the framework agreement that a contract of that kind ceases to have any future effect on expiry on the term stipulated in the contract, that term being identified as the completion of a specific task, a specific date being reached or, as in the present case, the occurrence of a specific event. Thus, the parties to a fixed-term employment contract are aware, from the moment of its conclusion, of the date or event which determines its end. That term limits the duration of the employment relationship without the parties having to make their intentions known in that regard after entering into the contract (judgment of 5 June 2018, Montero Mateos, C‑677/16, EU:C:2018:393, paragraph 60).

By contrast, the termination of a permanent employment contract on one of the grounds set out in Article 52 of the Workers’ Statute, on the initiative of the employer, is the result of circumstances arising which were not foreseen at the date the contract was entered into and which disrupt the normal continuation of the employment relationship (judgment of 5 June 2018, Montero Mateos, C‑677/16, EU:C:2018:393, paragraph 61). As is clear from the explanations of the Spanish Government, set out in paragraph 69 of this judgment, it is precisely in order to compensate for the unforeseen nature of the severance of the employment relationship for such a reason and, accordingly, the frustration of the legitimate expectations that the worker might then have had as regards the stability of that relationship, that Article 53(1)(b) of the Workers’ Statute requires in that case payment to the dismissed worker of compensation equivalent to 20 days’ salary for each year of service.

In the latter situation, Spanish law makes no difference in treatment between fixed-term workers and comparable permanent workers, since Article 53(1)(b) of the Workers’ Statute provides for statutory compensation equivalent to 20 days’ salary per year of service in the undertaking to the worker, irrespective of whether his employment contract is a fixed-term or a permanent contract.

In those circumstances, it must be considered that the specific purpose of the compensation for dismissal provided for in Article 53(1)(b) of the Workers’ Statute, like the particular context in which payment of that compensation is made, constitutes an objective ground that justifies the difference in treatment in question.

(see paras 71-75, operative part 1)