CELEX: C1997/212/28
Language: en
Date: 1997-07-12 00:00:00
Title: Reference for a preliminary ruling by the Employment Appeal Tribunal, by order of that court of 20 November 1996, in the case of Mrs B. J. Coote against Granada Hospitality Ltd (Case C-185/97)

No C 212/ 16             EN                   Official Journal of the European Communities                                         12 . 7. 97
       objectives designed to reduce pollution by the                         (i)      the complainant          was     employed   by     the
       substances in List II of the Annex to the Directive, the                        Respondent;
       Federal Republic of Germany has failed to fulfil its
       obligations under the EC Treaty;                                       ( ii ) during her employment, the complainant brought
                                                                                       a claim of sex discrimination against the
                                                                                       Respondent which was compromised;
2 . order the Federal Republic of Germany to pay the
       costs of the proceedings.                                              ( iii ) following the end of her employment, the
                                                                                       complainant has made efforts to find full-time
                                                                                       work, but has been unsuccessful ;
Pleas in law and main arguments adduced in support:
                                                                              ( iv ) the Respondent has caused or contributed to the
It is evident from the wording of Article 7 ( 1 ) of the                               complainant's difficulties in finding work by
Directive, in conjunction with Article 1 thereof, that                                 refusing to provide references to potential
Member States were required to establish programmes                                    employers when requested to do so;
with quality objectives designed to reduce water pollution
within a specified period. The German Federal                                 ( v ) the employer's decision to refuse to provide
                                                                                       references   was    taken    after the  end   of    the
Government, on the other hand, wrongly argues that most
of the substances in question were covered by overall                                  complainant's employment;
parameters, and attempts to demonstrate the equivalence
and/or advantages of these national rules vis-a-vis the                        (vi ) the reason, or a principle reason, for the
emission norms for individual substances. Likewise, the                                employer's decision to refuse to provide a
                                                                                       reference to the complainant was that she had
existence of general programmes for water purification, as
                                                                                       previously brought a claim of sex discrimination
cited by the German Federal Government (2 ), cannot be
                                                                                       against the Respondent.
regarded as constituting an adequate implementation of
Article 7 .
                                                                         2.    Does         Council    Directive     76/207/EEC     on     the
                                                                               implementation of the principle of equal treatment for
O OJ No L 129 , 18 . 5 . 1976 , p . 23 .
( 2 ) Inter alia, the Elbe Action Programme of the 'International
                                                                               men and women as regards access to employment,
      Commission for the Protection of the Elbe ' ( IKSE ) and the             vocational training and promotion, and working
      IKSE's operational plan to the year 2000, the Rhine Action               conditions, require Member States to introduce into
      Programme of the ' International Commission for the                      their national legal systems such measures as are
      Protection of the Rhine ' ( ISKR), and the action programme              necessary to enable persons to pursue a claim by
      anticipating the Danube Convention .                                     judicial process where the circumstances set out under
                                                                               point 1 apply, save that:
                                                                               (i)      the Respondent's decision to refuse to provide a
                                                                                        reference was taken before the termination of the
                                                                                        complainant's employment; but
Reference for a preliminary ruling by the Employment                            ( ii ) the actual refusal or refusals to provide a
 Appeal Tribunal, by order of that court of 20 November                                 reference took place after the termination of the
 1996, in the case of Mrs B. J. Coote against Granada                                   complainant's employment.
                             Hospitality Ltd
                           ( Case C-185 /97 )                             (') OJ No L 39 , 14 . 2 . 1976 , p . 40 .
                              97/C 212/28 )
 Reference has been made to the Court of Justice of the
 European Communities by an order of the Employment                       Action brought on 15 May 1997 by the Commission of
 Appeal Tribunal of 20 November 1996, which was                           the European Communities against the Federal Republic
 received at the Court Registry on 12 May 1997, for a                                                    of Germany
 preliminary ruling in the case of Mrs B. J. Coote against
 Granada Hospitality Ltd, on the following questions:                                                ( Case C-l 86/97)
                                                                                                       ( 97/C 212/29 )
  1 . Does Council Directive 76/207/EEC of 9 February
        1976 on the implementation of the principle of equal              An action against the Federal Republic of Germany was
        treatment for men and women as regards access to                  brought before the Court of Justice of the European
        employment, vocational training and promotion, and                Communities on 15 May 1997 by the Commission of the
        working conditions (^, require Member States to                   European Communities, represented by Klaus-Dieter
        introduce into their national legal systems such                  Borchardt, of its Legal Service, acting as Agent, with an
        measures as are necessary to enable a complainant to               address for service in Luxembourg at the office of Carlos
        pursue a claim by judicial process where the following             Gomez de la Cruz, of its Legal Service, Wagner Centre
        circumstances apply:                                               C 254, Kirchberg.