Legal issue: the constitutionality of regulations which do not prohibit the dismissal of pregnant women who are civil servants, as opposed to their counterparts working under labour contracts?

Ratio decidendi: having referred to its previous decisions, the Court reiterated the prohibition against different treatment of people who are found in the same or similar situations. It pointed out that the differentiation of guarantees within the framework of State protection of family, motherhood and childhood must draw upon some objective criteria. In the present case, the distinctions as to the volume of guarantees for pregnant women were introduced on the ground of sole criterion of their field of professional activities, and therefore such distinctions do not correspond to the Constitution. At the same time, the Court pointed out that to pregnant women who are civil servants may apply other kinds of disciplinary sanctions, but not dismissal.