O'Brien (Appellant) v Ministry of Justice (Formerly the Department for Constitutional Affairs) (Respondents), [2010] UKSC 34, 28/07/2010
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Location: Case Types Employment |
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| Posted by: Stephen Moore |
05/08/2010 18:20 |
This appeal raises questions of European Law concerning the rights of part-time workers, as well as questions of domestic law about the status and terms of service of judges in England and Wales.
The Appellant, Mr O’Brien, is a barrister. On 1 March 1978, he was appointed by the Lord
Chancellor’s department as a recorder (a part-time judge) under the Courts Act 1971. Mr O’Brien had his appointment extended a number of times until he retired on 31 March 2005. He was remunerated, as were other recorders, by way of a fee paid for each day that he sat. Unlike full-time judges and parttime salaried judges, however, Mr O’Brien and other recorders were not given a pension upon retirement.
The Supreme Court unanimously referred the appeal to the ECJ. The Court asked the ECJ to consider two questions: (1) whether it was for national law to determine whether or not judges as a whole are ‘workers who have an employment contract or employment relationship’ within the meaning of clause 2 (1) of the Framework Agreement, or whether there was a European Community norm by which this matter must be determined and (2) If judges are workers who have an employment contract or employment relationship within the meaning of clause 2 (1), whether it was permissible for national law to discriminate (a) between full-time and part-time judges, or (b) between different kinds of part-time judges in the provision of pensions. |
| Court: UK Supreme Court (UK) |
| Click on this link to access the full judgement. |
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