CELEX: C2005/006/10
Language: en
Date: 2005-01-08 00:00:00
Title: Judgment of the Court (First Chamber) of 18 November 2004 in Case C-284/02 (reference for a preliminary ruling from the Bundesarbeitsgericht): Land Brandenburg v Ursula Sass (Social policy — Male and female workers — Article 141 EC — Equal pay — Directive 76/207/EEC — Equal treatment — Maternity leave — Passage to a higher salary grade — Failure to take account of the whole of a period of maternity leave taken under the legislation of the former German Democratic Republic)

8.1.2005   
            
            
               EN
            
            
               Official Journal of the European Union
            
            
               C 6/6
            
         
      JUDGMENT OF THE COURT
   
   (First Chamber)
   of 18 November 2004
   in Case C-284/02 (reference for a preliminary ruling from the Bundesarbeitsgericht): Land Brandenburg v Ursula Sass (1)
   
   (Social policy - Male and female workers - Article 141 EC - Equal pay - Directive 76/207/EEC - Equal treatment - Maternity leave - Passage to a higher salary grade - Failure to take account of the whole of a period of maternity leave taken under the legislation of the former German Democratic Republic)
   (2005/C 6/10)
   Language of the case: German
   In Case C-284/02: reference for a preliminary ruling under Article 234 EC from the Bundesarbeitsgericht (Germany), made by decision of 21 March 2002, received at the Court on 2 August 2002, in the proceedings between Land Brandenburg and Ursula Sass — the Court (First Chamber), composed of: P. Jann, President of the Chamber, A. Rosas, (Rapporteur), R. Silva de Lapuerta, K. Lenaerts and S. von Bahr, Judges; L. A. Geelhoed, Advocate General; F. Contet, Principal Administrator, for the Registrar, has given a judgment on 18 November 2004, in which it has ruled:
   Council Directive 76/207/EEC of 9 February 1976 on the implementation of the principle of equal treatment for men and women as regards access to employment, vocational training and promotion, and working conditions precludes a collective agreement such as the Bundes-Angestelltentarifvertrag-Ost (collective agreement for civil servants on a contractual basis in the public sector in East Germany) from excluding from a qualifying period the part of the period for which a female worker took maternity leave, under the legislation of the former German Democratic Republic, which exceeds the protected period of eight weeks provided for by the legislation of the Federal Republic of Germany to which that agreement refers, where the objectives and purpose of both periods of leave are the protection of women as regards pregnancy and maternity, as provided for by Article 2(3) of that directive. It is for the national court to ascertain whether those conditions are fulfilled.
   
      (1)  OJ C 261 of 26.10.2002.