Dear EELA Members,

We hope that you are well! Please find your regular EU Employment Law update below. Although the ECJ has delivered many judgements, it has been relatively quiet on employment law.

Recent case law highlight

The case C-154/18(Horgan) concerned a 10% reduction of teacher salaries in Ireland as of 1 January 2011. Two teachers claimed that this constituted indirect discrimination on grounds of age, as 70% of the disadvantaged group was younger than 25 years. However, according to the ECJ, the only relevant criterion for making the distinction at issue –the date at which the teacher was recruited – was an objective and neutral factor, manifestly unconnected to any taking into account of the age of the persons recruited. Moreover, the average age of recruited teachers was not different than in previous years.

List of recent case law

• Case C-154/18(Horgan): reduction of teacher salaries based on recruiting date does not constitute indirect discrimination.
• Case C-579/17(BUAK): Article 1 of Regulation (EU) No 1215/2012 must be interpreted as including an action for payment of wage supplements in respect of annual leave pay brought by a body governed by public law against an employer, in connection cross-border work with the habitual place of work outside the Member State. This applies insofar as the modalities for bringing such an action do not infringe the rules of general law and, in particular, do not exclude the possibility for the court ruling on the case to verify the merits of the information on which the establishment of that claim is based.

EU employment law news

• On 1 March 2019, The European Commission presented a number of actions to be taken to push for higher social standards in the aviation industry, as part of its social agenda, particularly the European Pillar of Social Rights. The press release can be found here, the report can be found here.
• On 14 February 2019, the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council reached a provisional agreement on the Commission’s proposal to establish a European Labour Authority (ELA). The ELA must support fair labour mobility within the EU, including cooperation between national authorities, and must prevent social fraud and abuse. The press release can be found here, the Q&A Fact Sheet can be accessed through this link, while more information on the proposal – including a short video clip – is available here.
• This month the Brexit will take place. The last weeks, there has been increasing debate about the possibilities to extend the Brexit deadline. On 12, 13 and 14 March 2019, there could be key votes in the UK House of Commons on the amended Withdrawal Agreement, on leaving without a deal and on seeking an extension. For more information, please refer to the publicationof the House of Commons Library. The EU Summit on 21-22 March 2019 will be relevant for the EU position, as Prime Minister May and President Juncker of the European Commission have agreed to wind up the negotiation there.

Login information

Please find the login information for your convenience:

Website: www.eelc-online.com
Username: guest
Password: welcome-eelc

Concluding remarks

We hope that you appreciate this newsletter to keep you up to date on EU employment law developments. Once again, if you have suggestions or requests regarding this newsletter, please send an email to eelc@law.eur.nl!

Best regards,

6 March 2019,

Zef Even
Editor-in-chief EELC

Ruben Houweling
General editor Academic Board EELC