YT and others v. Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca – MIUR, Case C-282/19 (Second Section), 13 January 2022.

Refusal to convert Catholic religious education teachers' employment contract to a permanent contract.

Directive 1999/70 / EC - CES, UNICE and CEEP framework agreement on fixed-term work

1. The fact that certain fixed-term workers cannot benefit from conversion of their employment contract into a contract of indefinite duration, whereas other workers in a comparable situation may do so, constitutes a difference in treatment between two categories of fixed-term workers. It follows that the referring court may not disapply the national rules which, in the case of Catholic teachers in State education establishments, prevent the automatic conversion of a fixed-term contract into a contract of indefinite duration where the employment relationship extends beyond a certain date on the basis of clause 4 of Directive 1999/70/EC - Framework Agreement on fixed-term work concluded by ETUC, UNICE and CEEP, since that situation does not fall within its scope.

2. The concept of 'objective reasons', within the meaning of clause 5 of Directive 1999/70/EC - Framework Agreement on fixed-term work concluded by ETUC, UNICE and CEEP, must be understood as referring to precise and concrete circumstances which characterize a given activity and which are therefore such as to justify, in that particular context, the use of successive fixed-term employment contracts. The qualification which Catholic religious education teachers must have in order to teach, issued only once, and not before each school year in which a fixed-term contract of employment is concluded, does not constitute an 'objective reason', irrespective of the duration of the assignments entrusted to them.