EU regulatory register · PAY-TRANSPARENCY
Article 21Limitation periods
CELEX 32023L0970 · Read on 2026-08-22
Official text
Read from the EU Publications Office for this CELEX number. The wording stands as published; nothing here is rewritten or summarised.
1. Member States shall ensure that national rules applicable to limitation periods for bringing equal pay claims determine when such periods begin to run, the duration thereof and the circumstances under which they may be suspended or interrupted. The limitation periods shall not begin to run before the claimant is aware, or can reasonably be expected to be aware, of an infringement. Member States may decide that limitation periods do not begin to run while the infringement is ongoing or before the end of the employment contract or employment relationship. Such limitation periods shall be no shorter than three years.
2. Member States shall ensure that a limitation period is suspended or, depending on national law, interrupted, as soon as a claimant undertakes action by bringing a complaint to the attention of the employer or by instituting proceedings before a court, directly or through the workers’ representatives, the labour inspectorate or the equality body.
3. This Article does not apply to rules on the expiry of claims.
Judgments of the Court of Justice
1 decisions
- C-223/19Court of Justice of the European Union
YS v NK
Reference for a preliminary ruling – Equal treatment in employment and occupation – Directives 2000/78/EC and 2006/54/EC – Scope – Prohibition of indirect discrimination on grounds of age or sex – Justifications – National legislation providing for an amount to be withheld from pensions paid directly to their recipients by undertakings in which the State has a majority participation and for the cancellation of the indexation of the amount of those pensions – Articles 16, 17, 20 and 21 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union – Applicability – Discrimination on grounds of property – Infringement of the freedom of contract – Infringement of the right to property – Article 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights – Right to an effective remedy.
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