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Sex discrimination: Equal Treatment Directive outlaws positive discrimination

This report relates to 1 case(s)

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    Kalanke v Freie Hansestadt Bremen [1995] IRLR 660 ECJ (1 other report)

    • Positive discrimination prohibited

      Date:
      1 January 1996

      In Kalanke v Freie Hansestadt Bremen (17 October 1995) EOR65A, the European Court of Justice rules that a German law giving equally qualified women preference against men in selection for public sector jobs in which women were underrepresented did not fall within the exception to the principle of nondiscrimination permitted by Article 2(4) of the Equal Treatment Directive.

In Kalanke v Freie Hansestadt Bremen [1995] IRLR 660, the European Court of Justice holds that the Equal Treatment Directive precludes national rules which guarantee women equally qualified with men automatic selection for appointment or promotion to posts in which women are underrepresented. Such rules overstep the limits of the exception in the Directive for "measures to promote equal opportunity for men and women, in particular by removing existing inequalities which affect women's opportunities".