(14a) The Court of Justice has consistently held that the Barber Protocol does not affect the right to join an occupational pension scheme and that the limitation of the effects in time of the judgment of the Court of Justice in Case C-262/88 Barber v Guardian Royal Exchange Assurance Group does not apply to the right to join an occupational pension scheme; the Court has also rule
d that the national rules relating to time-limits for bringing actions under
national law may be relied on against workers who assert their right to join an occupational pension scheme, provided that they are not less f
...[+++]avourable for that type of action than for similar actions of a domestic nature and that they do not render the exercise of rights conferred by Community law impossible in practice; the Court has also pointed out that the fact that a worker can claim retroactively to join an occupational pension scheme does not allow the worker to avoid paying the contributions relating to the period of membership concerned.