European Court of Justice: Decision on Part-time and Accrual of Pay Increases

On 19 October 2023, the Court of Justice of the European Union, in Case C-660/20, stressed that only objective reasons can justify treating part-time and full-time workers differently.
The Court ruled that domestic legislation that requires part-time employees to work an extra number of hours equal to that required of full-time employees to obtain a pay supplement is contrary to EU law.
That provision is discriminatory as it unfavourably treats part-time employees, who must perform more extra hours of service than their full-time colleagues to receive the same additional remuneration.

The case concerned a German pilot working part-time for an airline company.

According to his contract, he could receive additional remuneration if he exceeded a certain number of flying hours in a month, the same for both full-time and part-time pilots. The pilot brought the case before the Court because, working part-time, he should have lower thresholds than his full-time colleagues.

The German Federal Labour Court asks the CJEU, by way of a reference for a preliminary ruling, whether this rule, which does not provide for a reduction in proportion to the part-time hours for the accrual of the bonus, is discriminatory under EU law.

The Court of Justice, considering the two categories of employees to be comparable in that they perform the same tasks, finds that the national rules result in less favourable treatment for part-time employees, who, all things being equal, have greater difficulty in meeting the conditions for entitlement to additional remuneration.

The German legislation is, therefore, detrimental to the rights of part-time employees unless its application is justified by an objective reason (which was not found in this case).

On the contrary, a threshold 'proportional' to the part-time working hours fixed in the employment contract should be applied to part-time workers.

Employers must pay particular attention to avoiding unfavourable treatment, in employment contracts or company policies, of specific categories of employees, such as part-timers. It is irrespective of the intentional element of discrimination since what matters is the objective effect of the conduct.