Rinner-Kühn v FWW Spezial-Gebaudereinigung GmbH & Co KG (1989) C-171/88 is an EU labour law case, concerning indirect discrimination and objective justification. Facts The company refused to pay their part-time worker, Frau Ingrid Rinner-Kühn, any sick pay. National law required sick pay for people working over ten hours per week. The German Government argued the law was justified because those working under ten hours a week were less integrated in undertakings than other workers and less dependent. Judgment The ECJ started by deciding that sick pay was within the term ‘pay’ under TFEU art 157. So denial of sick pay was prima facie indirect discrimination against women. It rejected the Government's justification, because though it was a decision for a national court, ‘generalizations about certain categories of workers… do not enable criteria which are both objective and unrelated to any discrimination on grounds of sex to be identified.’ The ECJ did accept, however, that broader considerations apply when it is a law. If the law would ‘meet a necessary aim of social policy and that they are suitable and requisite for attaining that aim’ it would be justified. See also UK labour law Unfair dismissal Notes References Court of Justice of the European Union case law 1989 in the European Economic Community German case law 1989 in case law 1989 in Germany European Union labour case law