No allowances for women on maternity suspension

The ECJ has ruled that a woman on maternity suspension is not entitled to be paid an on-call allowance: Gassmayr v Bundesminister fur Wissenschaft und Forschung (C-194/08).

Similarly, the ECJ ruled that a flight attendant who was temporarily transferred to an office job due to her pregnancy is not entitled to be paid certain allowances (e.g. an allowance for long-haul flights) when she was performing the office job: Parvianen v Finnair Oyj (C-471/08).

In both cases, the ECJ said that the payment of the allowance was dependent on the performance of a specific task which the women could not perform during the period of their maternity suspension.

Also see Discrimination on the grounds of maternity leave