ECJ 25 February 2021, Case C-129/20 (Caisse pour l’avenir des enfants (Emploi à la naissance)), Maternity and Parental Leave

• Summary

  While Member States can require that a parent has been uninterruptedly employed during the year prior to the start of the parental leave, they cannot require that s/he was employed during when the child was born or adopted.

• Question

  Must clauses 1.1, 1.2, 2.1 and 2.3(b) of the framework agreement on parental leave, annexed to Directive 96/34, be interpreted as precluding the grant of parental leave from being made subject to the twofold condition that the worker is lawfully employed in a workplace and affiliated in that regard to the social security scheme concerned, first, without interruption for a period of at least 12 months immediately preceding the start of that parental leave and, secondly, at the time of the birth of the child or children or of the reception of the child or children to be adopted.

• Ruling

  Clauses 1.1, 1.2, 2.1 and 3.1(b) of the Framework Agreement on parental leave (revised) of 18 June 2009, annexed to Council Directive 2010/18/EU of 8 March 2010 implementing the revised Framework Agreement on parental leave concluded by BUSINESSEUROPE, UEAPME, CEEP and ETUC and repealing Directive 96/34/EC, must be interpreted as not precluding national legislation which makes the grant of a right to parental leave subject to the condition that the parent concerned is employed without interruption for a period of at least 12 months immediately preceding the start of the parental leave. By contrast, those clauses preclude national legislation which makes the grant of a right to parental leave subject to the condition that the parent has the status of a worker at the time of the birth or adoption of his or her child.