Re Badeck’s application C-158/97 is an EU labour law and UK labour law case, concerning positive action

Positive action

Positive action is a controversial term, roughly synonymous with affirmative action, used in identity politics currents to connote promotion of people based on belonging to non majority identity groups in the workplace, educational institutions and positions in society, purpotedly without...

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Facts

The First Minister and Attorney General of Hesse, CDU

Christian Democratic Union (Germany)

The Christian Democratic Union of Germany is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany. It is regarded as on the centre-right of the German political spectrum...

 member Georg Badeck, wanted to review a Hesse

Hesse

Hesse or Hessia is both a cultural region of Germany and the name of an individual German state.* The cultural region of Hesse includes both the State of Hesse and the area known as Rhenish Hesse in the neighbouring Rhineland-Palatinate state...

 law which set out a list of positive action measures for appointment to public office. They argued it violated the German Grundgesetz constitutional duty to get the best people for the job, and violated the Equal Treatment Directive 76/207/EC articles 2(1) and 2(4).

Judgment

The European Court of Justice held that priority for under represented groups was lawful, but that priority could not be automatic. The following public sector positive action measures were in fact legitimate under article 2(4): (1) aiming to get a parity split of men and women in the public sector, (2) providing a quota for female academic staff too, (3) reserving half the training places in certain fields for women, (4) providing that suitably qualified women would be guaranteed an interview, and an equal number to men. The summary of the judgment on the limits and what is not precluded by EU law was stated as follows.