(Judgment of the Court of Justice of 20 June 2019, C-404/18)
Relatively recently, in 2019, the Court of Justice of the European Union (hereinafter: the CJEU) received a preliminary ruling from the Belgian national court regarding the interpretation of the provision of Directive 2006/54/EC on the principle of equal treatment of women and men in the form of Art. 24. This regulation introduces an obligation that „Member States shall introduce into their national legal systems such measures as are necessary to protect employees, including employees who are employees’ representatives, provided for by national legislation or practice, against dismissal or other unfavorable treatment by the employer in response to a complaint within the company or any legal proceedings to ensure compliance with the principle of equal treatment.’.
The facts underlying this question for a preliminary ruling referred to the situation in which two ladies (T. Vandenbon and Ms. J. Hakelbracht) found themselves in connection with the recruitment procedure for the position of a clothing store saleswoman. The first of the above women, due to the performance of her managerial duties, decided to employ Ms. Hakelbrach, who, importantly in the context of the present case, was three months pregnant at the time. However, her choice was not approved by the company managing the individual clothing stores. Ms Vandenbon then informed Ms Hakelbracht that her candidature had been rejected as a result of her pregnancy. The job applicant consequently decided to lodge a complaint with the relevant institute against the company, for which the company also blamed T. Vandenbon. The woman was subsequently dismissed, citing, among other reasons, unsatisfactory performance of her duties, lack of respect for safety rules, substandard maintenance of the store and lack of order. As a result, both ladies, about whom the analyzed judgment is concerned, decided to go to court. In the course of the proceedings, the Belgian court asked how the scope of Art. 22 sec. 2 of the Belgian Gender Equality Act is related to Art. 24 above directive. This provision protects only official witnesses of proceedings pending as part of discrimination committed by the workplace against another employee.
Subsumption of the CJEU led to an important conclusion, as „Article 24 of Directive 2006/54/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 July 2006 on the implementation of the principle of equal opportunities and equal treatment of men and women in matters of employment and occupation should be interpreted in so far as it precludes a provision of national law, such as that at issue in the main proceedings, under which, where a person who considers that he has been the victim of discrimination on grounds of sex has lodged a complaint, the side, is protected from reprisals by the employer only if he acts as a witness in the examination of that complaint and his testimony complies with the formal requirements provided for in those provisions.”
Undoubtedly, it can be said that the CJEU has confirmed the tendency of Community law to protect employees as broadly as possible against various forms of discrimination. It should be noted that it is also postulated to care for the situation of those employees with whom the cases reported to the court are indirectly related.
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