In joined Cases C-257/21 and C-258/21 (๐๐ฐ๐ค๐ข-๐๐ฐ๐ญ๐ข ๐๐ถ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฏ ๐๐ข๐ณ๐ต๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด ๐๐ฆ๐ถ๐ต๐ด๐ค๐ฉ๐ญ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ), the issue was whether payments for night work fell within the scope of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.
In particular, the employees had argued that it follows from Article 20 of the Charter (equality before the law) that bonuses for regular night work must be equivalent to bonuses for occasional night work.ย
The referring German Federal Labor Court had linked the claims to Directive 2003/88/EC and referred the question to the ECJ as to whether night work bonuses fall within the scope of that Directive and thus of the Charter.
However, as before, the Court held that Directive 2003/88/EC applies only to working time from the point of view of health and safety, and not to pay. Consequently, the Court held that night work bonuses do not fall within the scope of the Directive, and thus not within the Charter:
“๐ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ท๐ช๐ด๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ข ๐ค๐ฐ๐ญ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ค๐ต๐ช๐ท๐ฆ ๐ข๐จ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ช๐ค๐ฉ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ท๐ช๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ข ๐ฉ๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ด๐ถ๐ฑ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ข๐ณ๐บ ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ข๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ช๐ณ๐ณ๐ฆ๐จ๐ถ๐ญ๐ข๐ณ ๐ฏ๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ต ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฌ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ฆ๐ด๐ต๐ข๐ฃ๐ญ๐ช๐ด๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐จ๐ถ๐ญ๐ข๐ณ ๐ฏ๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ต ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฌ ๐ช๐ด ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ช๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐๐ช๐ณ๐ฆ๐ค๐ต๐ช๐ท๐ฆ 2003/88/๐๐ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ถ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฏ ๐๐ข๐ณ๐ญ๐ช๐ข๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ค๐ช๐ญ ๐ฐ๐ง 4 ๐๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ณ 2003 ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฏ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ค๐ฆ๐ณ๐ต๐ข๐ช๐ฏ ๐ข๐ด๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ค๐ต๐ด ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ณ๐จ๐ข๐ฏ๐ช๐ด๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฌ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ช๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ณ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ด๐ฆ๐ด ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ณ๐ต๐ช๐ค๐ญ๐ฆ 51(1) ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ฉ๐ข๐ณ๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ข๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ข๐ญ ๐๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ต๐ด ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ถ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฏ ๐๐ฏ๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ.”
This article was first published by our Romanian member firm Suciu – Employment and Data Protection Lawyers in July 2022. To know more about our member, visit their Linkedin page.
