In his latest Coffee Break Briefing webinar, Frettens’ own Insolvency Guru Malcolm Niekirk looked at dealing with solvent liquidations with no tax clearance.
This is the summary of that briefing.
Kratzer v R+V Allgemeine Versicherung AG
The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has confirmed that the provisions of the Equal Treatment Directive 2007 do not apply to a job applicant who is purely seeking compensation.
In this case the employer, R+V, advertised trainee positions for graduates. Mr Kratzer applied and was unsuccessful. He sent a written complaint to R+V demanding €14,000 in compensation for age discrimination.
R+V invited him to an interview, stating that the rejection of his application had been automatically generated and was a mistake. Mr Kratzer declined to attend the interview and instead suggested a discussion about his future employment once his compensation had been settled. He brought a claim for age discrimination in the Wiesbaden Labour Court. On learning that all the trainee posts had gone to women, he claimed a further €3,500 for sex discrimination.
The CJEU had to decide whether obtaining the status of applicant with a view to compensation, and not to recruitment and employment, was covered under EU law. It held that such an applicant does not fall within the definition of 'access to employment, self-employment or to occupation' and therefore is not protected by the Directive. Accordingly, vexatious job applicants are not covered by EU discrimination laws.
In Practice
This European case confirms what we already understood in the UK. There have been numerous vexatious claimants here, one of which, John Berry, one of our clients was hit with, who have ultimately been unsuccessful when they have appealed to the higher courts. "To claim discrimination, a person has to genuinely want to be employed in the role they are applying for and must not merely be doing it as a money-making exercise," explains Head of Employment Paul Burton.
Our Employment Team, based in Christchurch, also cover Bournemouth, Poole and the New Forest. For a free initial chat, please call 01202 499255 and Paul or a member of the team will be happy to discuss any questions that you may have.
