Brussels, 12/10/2010 (Agence Europe) - The clause on automatic termination of employment contracts on the ground that an employee has reached retirement age are not necessarily age discrimination provided that it is “objectively and reasonably justified by a legitimate aim, including legitimate employment policy, labour market and vocational training objectives” and if “the means of achieving that aim are appropriate and necessary”.
That was the response of the Court to the Hamburg Labour Court question asking essentially if this clause, contained within the current collective agreement for the commercial cleaning sector, is consistent with the prohibition on discrimination on grounds of age laid down by Directive 2000/78/EC1 (equal treatment in employment and occupation).
The Court stated that such an automatic termination of employment contract clause does effectively create a difference of treatment based directly on age. However, “such a measure does not establish a regime of compulsory retirement but allows employers and employees to agree, by individual or collective agreements, on a means, other than resignation or dismissal, of ending employment relationships on the basis of the age of eligibility for a retirement pension”.
According to the Court, the national mechanism which authorises this clause is based on the balance to be struck between political, economic, social, demographic and/or budgetary considerations and the choice to be made between prolonging people's working lives or, conversely, providing for their early retirement.
Thus, the automatic termination of employment contract clause reflects a “balance between diverging but legitimate interests, against a complex background of employment relationships closely linked to political choices in the area of retirement and employment”. It guarantees workers a certain stability of employment and, in the long term, the promise of foreseeable retirement, while offering employers a certain flexibility in the management of their staff.
The pursuit of these “legitimate” objectives, then, may “objectively and reasonably”, “within the context of national law”, as provided in Directive 2000/78, justify a difference in treatment on the grounds of age prescribed by member states. (F.G./transl.rt)