The People Bulletin

Christel Meerts, a Belgian national,had been employed on a full-time basis since September 1992 by Proost NV under an employment contract of indefinite duration. From November 1996, she took various forms of career break and, from 18 November 2002, she worked half-time as a result of parental leave, which was due to end on 17 May 2003. On 8 May 2003, she was dismissed for economic reasons, nine days before her parental leave was due to expire. Proost had not observed a notice period – her employment was terminated with immediate effect. The termination payment was calculated on the basis of the salary she was receiving at the time, which was reduced by half because of the equivalent reduction in her working hours. Ms Meerts challenged the amount of compensation for dismissal, claiming it should be calculated on the basis of the full time salary she would have been receiving if she had not reduced her working hours as a result of parental leave. The Belgian Court of Cassation, which had to decide in the case, referred the matter to the European Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling. 

The ECJ ruled on 22 October 2009 that Clause 2.6 of the framework agreement on parental leave provides that rights acquired or in the process of being acquired by the worker on the date on which parental leave starts must be maintained as they stand until the end of parental leave. This is to avoid the loss of or reduction in rights derived from an employment relationship, acquired or being acquired, to which the worker is entitled when he or she starts parental leave, and to ensure that these are preserved as they were before the leave took place. 

Employers should therefore ensure that all termination payments made to individuals on parental leave treat that individual for the purposes of compensation calculation as if the salary reduction for parental leave purposes had not taken place at all. 

http://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2009-10/cp090093en.pdf