19In determining whether those benefits fall within the exception provided for by Article 3(3) of the Directive, which should be applied narrowly in the light of the general objectives of the legislation, it is necessary to focus only on the purpose of those benefits. The United Kingdom Government submits that this approach was followed by the Court in its judgment in Case 151/84 Roberts [1986] ECR 703, in which it was held that the conditions for granting early retirement pensions in the case of mass redundancies cannot be considered equivalent to the conditions for granting normal old-age pensions. Mrs Beckmann, for her part, points out that, in its judgment in Case C-262/88 Barber [1990] ECR I-1889, the Court made no distinction between early retirement allowances paid in the event of redundancy and other types of allowance paid in those circumstances and treated both as pay within the meaning of Article 119 of the EC Treaty (Articles 117 to 120 of the EC Treaty were replaced by Articles 136 EC to 143 EC).
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