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Equal pay: No discrimination against part-timers in overtime rules

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    Stadt Lengerich v Helmig [1995] IRLR 216 ECJ (1 other report)

    • Overtime pay for part-timers

      Date:
      1 March 1995

      In Stadt Lengerich v Helmig (15 December 1994) EOR60A, the European Court of Justice rules that there is no discrimination contrary to European Community law where a collective agreement provides that overtime supplements will be paid only when the normal working hours for full-time employees are exceeded.

It is not contrary to EC equal pay law to restrict the payment of premium overtime rates only to employees who work more than the designated number of normal full-time hours, holds the European Court of Justice in Stadt Lengerich v Helmig and five joined cases. The part-time employees in these cases, who were predominantly women, did not receive any overtime premia for working more than their individual hours, but they nevertheless received the same overall pay as full-time employees for the same number of hours worked. They were therefore, according to the ECJ, not subjected to any difference in treatment which could give rise to sex discrimination.