ABSTRACT
Mr Benoît Zielinski, Mr Patrick Pradal, Ms Jeanine Gonzalez, Ms Martine Mary, Ms Anita Delaquerrière, Mr Guy Schreiber, Ms Monique Kern, Mr Pascal Gontier, Ms Nicole Schreiber, Ms Josiane Memeteau and Mr Claude Cossuta worked for social-security bodies in Alsace-Moselle. On 28 March 1953 the representatives of the social-security offices of the Strasbourg region signed an agreement with the regional representatives of the trade unions under which a ‘special difficulties allowance’ was introduced for the staff of social-security bodies on the ground that applying the local law of the départements of Haut-Rhin, Bas-Rhin and Moselle was a particularly complicated task. Legal proceedings were brought by some staff members of the social-security offices with regard to the allowance and the applicants brought proceedings in the industrial tribunals. The applications of the applicants were allowed by the courts. By means of an amendment to the legislation, s 85, Law 94-43 of 18 January 1994, Parliament endorsed the amount of the allowance argued for by the State’s representative and the health-insurance offices and did so with retrospective effect. The Constitutional Council ruled in a decision of 13 January 1994 that the provision was constitutional. Applying the new Act, the Court of Cassation quashed the judgments given in Mr Zielinski and Mr Pradal’s favour by the Metz Court of Appeal and the Colmar Court of Appeal similarly reversed the judgments that had been given in favour of the other applicants. The applicants complained that the intervention of the State by means of retrospective legislation infringed the fair trial guarantee and except for Mr Zielinski and Mr Pradal they also complained, inter alia, of the length of the proceedings. Comm found unanimously V 6(1) as regards the fairness of the proceedings, not necessary to consider 13, V 6(1) as regards length of proceedings in respect of Ms Gonzalez, Ms Mary, Ms Delaquerrière, Mr Schreiber, Ms Kern, Mr Gontier, Ms Schreiber, Ms Memeteau and Mr Cossuta.
