Heimilt að segja fólki upp er það nær ellilífeyrisaldri - C-441/05

Í máli C-441/05, Palacios de la Villa, sem féll fyrr í dag, taldi ECJ að það gæti verið réttlætanlegt að segja mönnum upp þegar þeir næðu eftirlaunaaldri sem kveðið er á um í lögum eða kjarasamningum.

Af ECJBlog.com:

Mr Palacios claimed that his dismissal on the ground that he had attained the compulsory retirement age laid down in a collective agreement was unlawful.

On 18 July 2005, Cortefiel Servicios SA informed Mr Palacios by letter of his dismissal on the basis that he satisfied all the requirements laid down in Article 19 of the Collective Agreement, which provided:

“In the interests of promoting employment, it is agreed that the retirement age will be 65 years unless the worker concerned has not completed the qualifying period required for drawing the retirement pension, in which case the worker may continue in his employment until the completion of that period.’

[The Court] argued that that assessment must evidently apply to instruments of national employment policy designed to improve opportunities for entering the labour market for certain categories of workers.

Therefore, an objective such as that referred to by the legislation at issue must, in principle, be regarded as ‘objectively and reasonably’ justifying ‘within the context of national law’, as provided for by the first subparagraph of Article 6(1) of Directive 2000/78, a difference in treatment on grounds of age laid down by the Member States.

The Court furthermore reiterated that Member States and, where appropriate, the social partners at national level enjoyed broad discretion in their choice, not only to pursue a particular aim in the field of social and employment policy, but also in the definition of measures capable of achieving it.

The Court held that it did not appear unreasonable for the authorities of a Member State to take the view that a measure such as that at issue in the main proceedings might be appropriate and necessary in order to achieve a legitimate aim in the context of national employment policy, consisting in the promotion of full employment by facilitating access to the labour market.

In the light of those factors, it could not reasonably be maintained that national legislation such as that at issue in the main proceedings was incompatible with the requirements of Directive 2000/78.

The Court found that there was no further need to give a ruling in relation to Article 13 EC – also referred to in the preliminary questions – on the basis of which that directive was adopted.


Text of Judgment