22The Østre Landsret formed the view that resolution of the dispute required an interpretation of Article 3(1) of Directive 76/207 and of Article 4 of Directive 86/613 and decided to stay the proceedings and to refer the following questions to the Court for a preliminary ruling:1. The Court of Justice is asked to clarify how an assessment as to whether there is indirect discrimination on grounds of sex should be undertaken in a case concerning equal treatment under Council Directive 76/207 of 9 February 1976 and Council Directive 86/613 of 11 December 1986.Since it is supposed that under the settled case-law of the Court of Justice on equal pay a point-for-point comparison should be made, the Court is asked to clarify whether the comparison of occupational conditions to be undertaken in an equal treatment case should be made by way of an overall assessment of all the surrounding factors or by way of a point-for-point comparison as in equal pay cases.It can be assumed in answering the question that the negotiated reorganisation scheme, assessed as a whole, is gender-neutral in both its effect and purpose.It can further be assumed that the negotiated reorganisation scheme contains provisions which, viewed in isolation, result in a sex bias, inasmuch as it appears that some provisions predominantly affect female specialised medical practitioners whilst other provisions predominantly affect male specialised medical practitioners.2. If the answer to Question 1 is in the affirmative, the Court is requested to state if (and to what extent) considerations relating to budgetary stringency, savings and medical practice planning may be treated as objective and relevant considerations such as to make it acceptable that proportionately more women than men are affected by the provision in question.3. In view of the applicant's age (she was born in 1939), can the consideration for goodwill which the applicant could obtain on surrendering her practice at retirement age be likened to an employee's pension savings?4. If the Court of Justice replies to Question 3 in the affirmative, the Court is asked to explain how the answer to Question 1 is affected by the fact that the disadvantage to which the provision in question gives rise consists in part in lower consideration for goodwill when a practice is relinquished, and thus in reduced pension insurance, having regard to the fact that in paragraph 27 of the judgment in Case C-297/93 Grau-Hupka [1994] ECR I-5535, it was held that the Member States are not obliged to grant advantages in the matter of old-age pension insurance to persons who have brought up children or to provide benefit entitlements where employment has been interrupted by child-rearing.’
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