CELEX: C1998/234/33
Language: en
Date: 1998-07-25 00:00:00
Title: Reference for a preliminary ruling by the Social Security Commissioner, by order of 8 May 1998, in the cases of Regina Virginia Hepple, Anna Stec, Patrick Vincent Lunn, Oliver Kimber and Sybil Spencer against the Adjudication Officer (Case C-196/98)

25.7.98                EN                     Official Journal of the European Communities                                       C 234/17
    they are of special importance for the successful                          conditions such as those imposed in Great Britain for
    deployment of the contractual employee, otherwise to                       Reduced Earnings Allowance from 1988Ð89 onwards
    the extent of one half if the service started not later                    are necessary to ensure coherence between schemes or
    than 30 April 1995, and if it started later to the extent                  otherwise fall within the permitted exclusion in
    of one half but only in so far as they do not exceed a                     Article 7?
    total of three years?
                                                                         3.    If those unequal age conditions are not within the
    If Questions 1 and 2 are answered in the affirmative,
                                                                               permittd exclusion in Article 7, then does the doctrine
                                                                               of direct effect require the national court (in the
3. Are periods completed in institutions in Member                             absence of national legislation to comply with the
    States comparable to the said institutions to be taken                     Directive) to rectify the inequality by awarding an
    into account without temporal limitation?                                  additional payment to each individual concerned in
                                                                               any week when the payment prescribed under the
                                                                               occupational accident and disease scheme for him or
(1) OJ, English Special Edition 1968 (II), p. 475.                             her is lower than for a person of the other sex but in
                                                                               otherwise similar circumstances (the comparator'),
                                                                               without regard to:
                                                                               (a) any converse advantage in other weeks when, for
                                                                                   the same individual, a higher payment is
Reference for a preliminary ruling by the Social Security                          prescribed than for the comparator; and/or
Commissioner, by order of 8 May 1998, in the cases of
Regina Virginia Hepple, Anna Stec, Patrick Vincent Lunn,
Oliver Kimber and Sybil Spencer against the Adjudication                       (b) the existence or exercise of sex-differentiated
                              Officer                                              options under the pension scheme to choose the
                                                                                   pension starting age, the effect of which in
                        (Case C-196/98)
                                                                                   conjunction with the unequal conditions under the
                          (98/C 234/33)                                            occupational accident and disease scheme may be
                                                                                   to cause altered (and unequal) weekly payments
                                                                                   under that scheme: in some weeks to the
Reference has been made to the Court of Justice of the                             advantage of the individual, in others to the
European Communities by an order of the Social Security                            comparator?
Commissioner of 8 May 1998, which was recevied at the
Court Registry on 22 May 1998, for a preliminary ruling
in the cases of Regina Virginia Hepple, Anna Stec, Patrick                     Or should some account be taken of such matters,
Vincent Lunn, Oliver Kimber and Sybil Spencer against                          and if so what are the principles to be applied in
the Adjudication Officer, on the following questions:                          relation to them in giving direct effect to Article 4?
1.   Does Article 7 of Council Directive 79/7/EEC (1)                    (1) Council Directive 79/7/EEC of 19 December 1978 on the
                                                                             progressive implementation of the principle of equal treatment
     permit a Member State to impose unequal age
                                                                             for men and women in matters of social security (OJ L 6 of
     conditions linked to the different pension ages for                     10.1.1979, p. 24).
     men and women under its statutory old-age pension
     scheme, on entitlement to a benefit having the
     characteristics of Reduced Earnings Allowance under
     a statutory occupational accident and disease scheme,
     so as to produce different weekly cash payments
     under that scheme for men and women in otherwise
     similar circumstances, in particular where the
     inequality:                                                         Action brought on 20 May 1998 by the Commission of
                                                                          the European Communities against the Hellenic Republic
     (a) is not necessary for any financial reason connected                                    (Case C-197/98)
         with either scheme; and
                                                                                                 (98/C 234/34)
     (b) never having been imposed before, is imposed for
         the first time many years after the inception of the
         two schemes and also after 23 December 1984,                    An action against the Hellenic Republic was brought
         the latest date for the Directive to be given full              before the Court of Justice of the European Communities
         effect under Article 8?                                         on 20 May 1998 by the Commission of the European
                                                                         Communities, represented by M. Patakia and B. Mongin,
                                                                         both of its Legal Service, with an address for service in
2.   If the answer to Question I is Yes, what are the                    Luxembourg at the office of Carlos Gómez de la Cruz, of
     considerations that determine whether unequal age                   its Legal Service, Wagner Centre, Kirchberg.