Brussels, 19/06/2014 (Agence Europe) - Can a woman who leaves her job because of the physical constraints of pregnancy and who returns to work after giving birth retain the status of “worker” during the period in which she is not working? Yes, as long as she returns to work or finds a different job within a reasonable period of time after the birth of her child, the Court of Justice of the EU states in a ruling (case C-507/12) returned on Thursday 19 June.
The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, which had heard the case of a French national resident in the UK for two years, who left her job as a primary teaching assistant when she was six months pregnant, due to the physical constraints of her pregnancy, asked this question of the court of justice. Her application for income support was rejected in May 2008 by the government prior to her resuming work in August, three months after she gave birth prematurely, and the grounds that she had lost the status of “worker” in the sense of the directive on the freedom of movement and residence of EU citizens (2004/38/EC) during this period when she was not working.
The Court answered in the affirmative. It points out that a citizen of the EU who is not working can retain the status of worker in certain specific cases, such as a temporary inability to work. Additionally, it states that the directive does not give details of the circumstances under which a migrant worker can, despite losing his or her job, continue to benefit from the status of worker, and that it cannot on its own limit the scope of the notion of worker in the sense of the treaty (Article 45 TFEU). Furthermore, according to its own case-law, the term “worker” and the rights arising from this status do not necessarily depend on the existence or continuation of an employment relationship. Consequently, the fact that a woman is not present on the employment market for several months due to the physical constraints related to her pregnancy and childbirth do not mean that she has ceased to belong to that market during that period, as long as she returns to work or find a different job within a “reasonable period” after the birth. The Court goes on to clarify that, in order to determine the length of this “reasonable period”, the national court should take account of all the specific circumstances of the case in question and the national rules on maternity leave. (FG)