Brussels, 16/07/2015 (Agence Europe) - By denying male civil servants whose wives do not work the right to take parental leave, Greek legislation runs counter to Union law, according to a judgment of the Court of Justice of the EU, which is returned on Thursday 17 July (case C-222/14). It is therefore confirmed that parental leave is a stand-alone right which cannot depend on the situation of the spouse.
Greek law states that male civil servants are not entitled to paid parental leave if their wives do not work or exercise any profession, unless, due to a serious illness or disability, the wife is deemed incapable of meeting the needs related to the upbringing of the child.
At the end of 2010, Konstantinos Maïstrellis, a judge in Greece, applied for paid parental leave for the purpose of bringing up his child. This application was rejected by the Greek Minister for Justice on the grounds that at the time, Maïstrellis' wife was not working. The Greek Council of State asked the Court of Justice to verify the compliance of this decision with the Directive on Parental Leave and the Employment Equality Directive.
The Court answers that national legislation cannot deprive a male civil servant of the right to parental leave on the grounds that his wife does not work or exercise any profession.
The Court points out that by virtue of the Parental Leave Directive, parents may not be deprived of the right to parental leave. Therefore, the professional situation of the spouse cannot prevent the exercise of that right.
The Court also notes that the Greek legislation by no means guarantees full equality between men and women in professional life, as it perpetuates a traditional distribution of roles between men and women by keeping men in a role subsidiary to that of women when it comes to the exercise of their parental duties. In this way, the Greek Civil Service Code introduces direct discrimination on grounds of sex against civil servant fathers who want to take parental leave, which is contrary to the Employment Equality Directive, the Court concludes. (Lionel Changeur)