ABSTRACT
The case of Case 53/81 Levin v Staatssecretaris van Justitie [1982] ECR 1035; [1982] 2 CMLR 454 concerned a British citizen, who carried out part-time work in the Netherlands. She had been refused a residence permit on the basis that the remuneration for her work was below the minimum legal wage in the Netherlands. On an Art 234 reference, the ECJ held that the enjoyment by workers of the right to free movement could not be dependent on their earning a minimum wage, a criterion which could vary from state to state. It held that part-time employment, although providing an income lower than that considered necessary for subsistence, constituted for a large number of persons an effective means of improving their living conditions. To reserve the right to free movement solely to persons engaged in full-time employment and earning at least the minimum wage would jeopardise the effectiveness of community law. The ECJ further stated that the rules on free movement of workers ‘cover only the pursuit of effective and genuine activities, to the exclusion of activities
on such as small scale as to be regarded as purely marginal and ancillary’. Accordingly, the rules guarantee free movement only to those ‘who pursue or are desirous of pursuing a genuine economic activity’.
