Freedom of movement

Under European law workers have the right to freedom of movement to enable them to take up work in another member state. This means that national legislation should not operate in such a way as to discourage freedom of movement. However, as the case of Graf v Filzmoser Maschinenbau GmbH [2000] shows this does not prevent states from having legislation which discourages individuals from leaving their jobs, provided that the legislation does not discriminate on the grounds of national origin.