O’ Brien -v- Ministry of Justice – SC – 28-Jul-10 – Lord Hope, Deputy President, Lord Walker, Lady Hale, Lord Clarke, Sir John Dyson SCJ (Bailii, [2010] UKSC 34, Bailii Summary, SC, SC Summary) – European – Employment
The appellant had worked as a part time judge. He now said that he should be entitkled to a judicial pension on retirement by means of the Framework Directive. The Regulations disapplied the provisions protecting part time workers for judicial office holders paid on a daily fee-paid basis.
Held: The matter required to be referred to the ECJ. “Recorders (and all judges at every level) are subject to terms of service of the sort referred to by Sir Robert Carswell LCJ. Indeed judicial office partakes of most of the characteristics of employment. However, because domestic law cannot readily be disentangled from EU law on this issue the Court prefers to express no concluded view, as to whether judges (as a general class) would qualify as “workers” under the Regulations . .” There is no single definition of “worker” which holds good for all the purposes of Community law, and the effect of Clause 2(1) of the Framework Agreement, read together with Recital (16) of the PTWD, is to make domestic law relevant to the interpretation of the expression “worker”, but domestic law is not to oust or “trump” the principles underlying the EU legislation in such a way as to frustrate them.
Statutes:
Council Directive 97/81/EC of 15 December 1997
Part-time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2000 (SI 2000 No.1551)
Cases Cited:
Marleasing -v- La Comercial Internacional de Alimentación SA ECJ 13-11-1990 (Europa, (1992) 1 CMLR 305, C-106/89, [1990] ECR I-4135, Bailii, [1990] EUECJ C-106/89)
O’Brien -v- Department for Constitutional Affairs CA 19-12-2008 (Bailii, [2008] EWCA Civ 1448, Times, [2009] ICR 593) – Appeal from
Department of Constitutional Affairs -v- O’Brien EAT 22-4-2008 (Bailii, [2008] UKEAT 0139_07_2204) – At EAT
Deborah Lawrie-Blum -v- Land Baden-Wuerttemberg ECJ 3-7-1986 (Europa, C-66/85, R-66/85, Bailii, [1986] EUECJ R-66/85, [1986] ECR 2121)
Perceval-Price, Davey and Brown -v- Department of Economic Development, Department of Health and Social Services and Her Majesty’s Attorney General for Northern Ireland CANI 12-4-2000 (Times 28-Apr-00, Bailii, Bailii, [2000] NICA 9, [2000] NIECA 9, [2000] IRLR 380) – Approved
Percy -v- Church of Scotland Board of National Mission (Scotland) HL 15-12-2005 (Bailii, [2005] UKHL 73, House of Lords, Times 16-Dec-05, [2006] 2 WLR 353, [2006] ICR 134, [2006] IRLR 195, [2006] 2 AC 28)
Martínez Sala -v- Freistaat Bayern ECJ 12-5-1998 (Europa, C-85/96, [1998] ECR 1-2691)
Debra Allonby -v- Accrington & Rossendale College, Education Lecturing Services, trading as Protocol Professional and Secretary of State for Education and Employment ECJ 13-1-2004 (Europa, C-256/01, Bailii, [2004] EUECJ C-256/01, Europa, [2004] ECR I-00873, [2004] ICR 1328)
Landeshauptstadt Kiel -v- Norbert Jaeger ECJ 9-9-2003 (Europa, C-151/02, Times 26-Sep-03, Bailii, [2003] EUECJ C-151/02, [2004] ICR 1528)
Pfeiffer -v- Deutsches Rotes Kreuz, Kreisverband Waldshut eV ECJ 5-10-2004 (C-399/01, Bailii, [2004] EUECJ C-399/01)
Yolanda Del Cerro Alonso -v- Osakidetza (Servicio Vasco de Salud) (Free Movement Of Persons) ECJ 10-1-2007 (C-307/05, Bailii, [2007] EUECJ C-307/05, [2008] ICR 145)
Istituto nazionale della previdenza sociale (INPS) -v- Tiziana Bruno, Massimo Pettini (Social Policy) ECJ 10-6-2010 (C-395/08, Bailii, [2010] EUECJ C-395/08)
Wippel -v- Peek & Cloppenburg GmbH & Co. KG ECJ 12-10-2004 (Europa, [2005] IRLR 211, Bailii, [2004] EUECJ C-313/02, Europa, C-313/02, [2005] ICR 1604, [2005] 1 CMLR 9)
Christie -v- Department for Constitutional Affairs Department for Work & Pensions EAT 23-7-2007 (Bailii, [2007] UKEAT 0140_07_2307, Times 04-Nov-07, [2007] ICR 1553)
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