Part-time workers who were excluded from company pension schemes may be entitled to backdate their pension rights to 1976, following a recent ruling from the European Court of Justice. However, developments in European equality law on part-time workers may need to be tested in Irish courts before the rights of Irish workers are clarified. Pensions litigation is quite rare in this State.

There are 280,600 part-time workers in the Republic, three-quarters of whom are women. Only those who may have been discriminated against on gender grounds are affected by the ruling in the British Preston Case.

The part-time workers in Preston had not been allowed to join their employer's pension scheme, as only full-time employees were eligible to join. There was no objective justification for this decision. Most of the part-time workers were female and most of the full-time workers were male. Therefore the full-time requirement indirectly discriminated against part-time workers on gender grounds.

Irish part-time workers who have not been permitted to join their employer's pension scheme should establish whether there is any element of sex discrimination in their position before taking action. If most of the part-timers excluded from a pension scheme are the same sex - although these cases generally apply to women - their situation may be covered by European gender discrimination law.

Individuals or a group representative can then approach their employer to establish whether the employer is aware of the problem and what they are willing to do about it.

If the employer is not prepared to take action, it may be necessary to seek legal advice. A solicitor should be able to advise whether the matter is worth pursuing.

In the case of a contributory scheme, the person may have to make back payments to be eligible for the pension. These are details that would be worked out either with the employer or a solicitor.

The statute of limitations, or length of time a person has to make a claim after ceasing employment, would probably be six years, but would depend on how the claim was framed.

Meanwhile, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment is finalising the drafting of the Protection of Employees (Part-Time Work) Bill 2000. According to Minister of State, Mr Tom Kitt, the Bill will guarantee that part-time workers may not be treated less favourably than full-time workers. The Bill is expected to pass through the Oireachtas by January 2001.