EU ruling will affect part-timers

Coyle Hamilton's Focus Update reveals some interesting developments in European employment equality law.

The European Court of Justice has ruled that part-time workers in Britain's Preston case, the majority of which were female, are entitled to back-dated pension rights. The court awarded back years of service to cover the period when part-timers should have been allowed to join the scheme. The judgment has implications for the Republic and other EU states.

It means that Irish part-time employees, who have been indirectly discriminated against on gender grounds over membership of their employer's pension scheme, will be able to claim pension rights back to 1976.