Pension rights for part-time workers

Case 10:The facts

Hilde Schonheit and Silvia Becker worked part-time for their respective employers after a period of full-time employment. When they became entitled to a pension they discovered that the rules meant that they would get less than a full-time employee with fewer years' of service who had worked the same number of hours as them. Both women complained that this was in breach of EU equal treatment law on equal pay.

The ruling

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) accepted that a part-time worker can be paid a lower pension than a full-time worker in consideration for less work. The court said that community law does not preclude a retirement pension being calculated pro-rata for part-time workers. However, the way that their pensions had been calculated meant that they were actually paid less than pro-rata and, according to the court, this can never be justified, even on the ground of restricting public expenditure.

* Schonheit v Stadt Frankfurt am Main C-4/02