Part-time Work Directive 1997

Part-time Work Directive 97/81/EC is one of three EU Directives that regulate atypical work. Alongside the Fixed-term Work Directive and the Agency Work Directive, its aim is to ensure that people who have not contracted for permanent jobs are nevertheless guaranteed a minimum level of equal treatment compared to full-time permanent staff.

Content

Article 1 of the Directive states its purpose to enforce the framework agreement between the ETUC, the UNICE and the CEEP. This gives rise to the various provisions on fixed-term worker rights in the Directive.

Recital 16 also clarifies that undefined terms should be defined ‘in accordance with national law and practice’.

Implementation

EU case law

United Kingdom

The Part-time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2000[1] implemented the Directive in UK law, without any appearance of going beyond the minimum. In the leading case, Matthews v Kent & Medway Towns Fire Authority[2] the House of Lords found that a group of part-time and full-time firefighters were comparable, even though the part-time fire fighters did not do the administrative work of the full-time staff.

See also

Notes

  1. SI 2000/1551
  2. [2006] UKHL 8, [2006] IRLR 367

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/1/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.