Another CJEU ruling on overtime for part-time workers
On 29 July 2024, the Court of Justice held that a rule under which part-time workers can only receive overtime pay for work exceeding the work time standard applicable to full-time workers constitutes unequal treatment of part-time workers which, if not justified by objective reasons, may be contrary to EU law (case ref. C-184/22 and C-185/22).
The case concerned two German female employees working as part-time medical personnel. The employees claimed an overtime allowance. According to the applicable collective agreement, the workers had to work the same number of hours as full-time employees to receive the overtime allowance, irrespective of the work time standard resulting from their work hours. The Court upheld the workers' argument, finding that application of the same threshold of hours for entitlement to the overtime allowance for full-time and part-time workers constituted unequal treatment, as it was impossible, or at least significantly more difficult, for part-time workers to obtain the allowance. The EU court also noted that applicable rules may have been a manifestation of indirect gender discrimination, as there are noticeably more women among part-time workers.
This is another recent CJEU ruling on this issue. We wrote about the previous widely reported Lufthansa CityLine ruling here >>>.
It should be recalled that the emerging line of CJEU rulings may affect the interpretation of Polish law. Pursuant to regulations currently in force, the number of work hours entitling a part-time employee to an allowance for overtime work if exceeded, is determined by the parties in the content of an employment contract.