WOMEN on maternity leave are entitled to any percentage pay increases their working colleagues receive, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled yesterday.
But the court, which was considering the issues arising out of a case brought by 17 women from Northern Ireland, ruled against the women on the more substantial issue of their claimed right to full pay while on maternity leave.
The Luxembourg court was responding to questions from the Court of Appeal in Northern Ireland in the case of Ms Joan Gillespie and others against their employers, the Department of Health and Social Services and three health boards.
The women took maternity leave in 1988 and the following year instituted proceedings, claiming they had been discriminated against on the grounds of sex, because during their leave their pay had been reduced and pay increases negotiated in respect of their colleagues had not been applied to them.
The Court of Appeal asked the ECJ to consider whether Article 119 of the EEC Treaty, which provides for the principle of equal pay for men and women, and two equal pay directives, implied that maternity pay should be equal to full pay and, if not, if the EU legislation implied criteria by which maternity pay should be set.
It was also asked to consider whether there was an implied right to any negotiated pay increase obtained by those at work.
The court found that it is up to national legislatures to set the amount of benefit or pay, but that "the amount payable could not, however, be so low as to undermine the purpose of maternity leave, namely the protection of women before and after giving birth".
