An individual who has acquired the status of worker for the purposes of article 45 (ex Article 3) TFEU) (and thus regulation 4 (1) (a) of the Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2006) only through being a jobseeker, who is a qualified person under regulation 6(1)(a), does not retain the status of worker on ceasing to be a jobseeker. In such a scenario, the purpose in interpreting article 45 widely – to give effect to the right to move to another member state to seek employment – is absent.
The term ‘worker’ within article 45 covers, to a greater or lesser extent, not only actual workers but also:
(1) those entering a state for the first time to seek employment (‘first-time’ job seekers’)
(2) those who have had a job and are again seeking work (‘second-time job seekers’)
(3) vocational or occupational trainees; the involuntarily unemployed and sick;
(4) injured and retired workers; and,
(5) women who, because of the physical constraints of the late stages of pregnancy and the aftermath of childbirth, give up work or jobseeking, provided they return to work or find another job within a reasonable period after the birth of the child
Storey, Rintoul UTJJ
[2015] UKUT 433 (IAC)
Bailii
England and Wales
Immigration, European
Updated: 03 January 2022; Ref: scu.551571
