In Riežniece v Zemkopibas ministrija and another (a Latvian case), the ECJ held that EU law precludes a situation where, in a redundancy selection exercise, a worker who has taken parental leave is assessed on his or her absence which places that person in a less favourable position compared to workers who did not take parental leave. The employer based redundancy selection on the criteria used for assessing performance from the most recent appraisals, which the employee had not participated in because she had been absent on parental leave for 18 months. Her assessment was based on a previous appraisal when she was at work, where the performance criteria differed. She was subsequently made redundant. The ECJ ruled that any selection exercise must be based on selection criteria which are identical for all potentially affected employees. A failure to do so would contravene the Framework Agreement on Parental Leave and, where many more women than men take parental leave, the Equal Treatment Directive. While this case highlights the difficulties in carrying out a redundancy selection exercise where an employee in the pool has been absent for a long period, it also emphasises the need to try and create a level playing field by using a process which does not place those on parental leave (or indeed any other statutory leave) at a disadvantage.
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