Case C-13/05 Sonia Chacon Navas [2006] ECR I-6467

• An employee had been off work ill for 8 months.

• A directive prohibited discrimination based on disability.

• The ECJ held that this did not cover sickness, and nor did the general principle of non-discrimination. 

Geelhoed AG

• He noted the potentially far-reaching economic and financial consequences of claims to equal treatment based on the *175 prohibitions set out in Article 13 EC.

• The interpretation of measures based on Article 13 EC must not be stretched by relying on the words “[w]ithin the limits of the powers conferred by [the Treaty] upon the Community” in that Article, and still less by relying on the general policy of equality.

• Therefore he recommended a more restrained approach than in Mangold. 

RELATED CASES

• Werner Mangold v. Rüdiger Helm

• C-427/06 Bartsch