translate English to French: As the defendant party, O.N.Em., never offered any defence except that it was bound to apply the R.D., the reality of the unequal treatment was not debated and the Labour Court of Appeal did not have to solve the riddle which was submitted in EQN Spring 1999: is the discrimination direct or indirect when the challenged rule is "apparently neutral" (under Article 2 (2) of Directive 97/80) but results in imposing an adverse effect on 100% of the women concerned ?
According to the case law of the Federal Labour Court, an agreement that an employment contract automatically ends on a fixed date would be void unless there is either a pressing business need or statutory permission to agree on a fixed-term contract. The new statute is meant to implement Directives 97/81/EC and 99/97/EC in German employment law.