4 Colum. J. Eur. L. 147 (1998)

Petra Foubert. Assistant, Institute for European Law, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. The author wishes to thank Eva Brems for her remarks.

Equal treatment for men and women; Part-time employment; Indirect discrimination.

Both cases concern the compatibility of certain provisions of German legislation on public sector employment with the principle of equal treatment for men and women, laid down in Article 119 of the EC Treaty and governed by Directives 75/1171 and 76/207. The Court was asked in particular to rule on the lawfulness of statutory regulations under which the administration takes into account periods of employment completed on a part-time basis-for the purposes, respectively, of promotion, and exemption of an employee from a public examination-differently from those completed on a full-time basis.

Because of the fact that the issues raised in both cases were substantially similar, the Advocate General issued a joint opinion. The ECJ, however, passed two separate judgments on October 2, 1997.