Greek law provides that a male civil servant is not entitled to paid parental leave if his wife does not work or exercise any profession, unless it is considered that, due to a serious illness or injury, the wife is unable to meet the needs related to the upbringing of the child. Bearing this in mind, Konstantinos Maistrellis, a judge in Greece, applied for paid parental leave of nine months for the purpose of bringing up his child born on 24 October, 2010. That application was rejected by the Greek Minister for Justice, Transparency and Human Rights on the ground that Mr Maistrellis’s wife was not working at the time. Hearing the case, the Greek Council of State has asked the Court of Justice whether denying the benefit of parental leave to a male civil servant whose wife is not working is compatible with the Parental Leave Directive and the Employment Equality Directive.

The European Court of Justice answered that national legislation cannot deprive a male civil servant of the right to parental leave on the ground that his wife does not work or exercise any profession. The Court recalls that, according to the Parental Leave Directive, each of the parents is entitled, individually, to parental leave. That is a minimum requirement from which Member States cannot derogate in their legislation or in collective agreements. It follows that a parent cannot be deprived of the right to parental leave, and the employment status of the spouse cannot therefore prevent the exercise of that right. That solution, moreover, complies not only with the objective of the directive, which is to facilitate the reconciliation of the parental and professional responsibilities of working parents, but also with the status of parent leave entitlement as a fundamental social right recognised by the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU.

Furthermore, the Court notes that in Greece mothers who are civil servant are always entitled to parental leave, whereas fathers who are civil servant are only entitled to it if the mother of their child works or exercises a profession. Thus, the mere fact of being a parent is not sufficient for male civil servants to gain entitlement to that leave, whereas it is sufficient for women with an identical status. Far from ensuring full equality in practice between men and women in working life, the Greek legislation is therefore more liable to perpetuate a traditional distribution of the roles of men and women by keeping men in a role subsidiary to that of women in relation to the exercise of their parental duties.