European Union – Employment. The Court of Justice of the European Union gave a preliminary ruling, deciding that cl 4(1) of the framework agreement on fixed term work, annexed to Council Directive (EC) 1999/70 should be interpreted as: (i) meaning that the concept of 'employment conditions' covered the compensation that the employer had to pay to an employee on account of the termination of his fixed-term employment; and (ii) precluding national legislation, such as that at issue in the main proceedings, which refused to provide for any compensation for termination of a contract of employment to a worker employed under a temporary replacement contract while allowing such compensation to be granted, among other things, to comparable permanent workers.