In a judgment handed down on Thursday 19 October (case C-660/20), the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled that part-time workers cannot be disadvantaged by being paid more for working more than a certain number of hours.
Working part-time for the airline Lufthansa CityLine, a German pilot receives basic pay based on his duty time and additional pay if he completes a certain number of hours of overtime in a month in excess of the thresholds set out in his contract of employment. He disputes the fact that these thresholds are identical to those applicable to full-time pilots.
Referred to by the German Federal Labour Court, the CJEU interprets the framework agreement on part-time work concluded by UNICE, CEEP and the ETUC and annexed to the directive (97/81).
The European judge is of the opinion that part-time and full-time pilots perform the same duties. He also notes that the existence of identical thresholds for triggering additional remuneration represents, for part-time pilots, a longer flight time service in relation to their total working time. Part-time pilots therefore have a heavier workload and will much more rarely meet the conditions for entitlement to additional pay than their full-time colleagues.
As a result, the Court ruled that German legislation treats part-time pilots less favourably, which is contrary to EU law, unless such treatment is justified by an objective reason. The national jurisdiction is called upon to verify this aspect, even if the Court has reservations about the justifications put forward by the airline.
See the Court’s judgment: https://aeur.eu/f/95g (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)