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1. Member States shall take the necessary measures to prohibit the dismissal or its equivalent and all preparations for dismissal of workers, on the grounds that they have exercised the rights provided for in this Directive.

2. Workers who consider that they have been dismissed, or have been subject to measures with equivalent effect, on the grounds that they have exercised the rights provided for in this Directive, may request the employer to provide duly substantiated grounds for the dismissal or the equivalent measures. The employer shall provide those grounds in writing.

3. Member States shall take the necessary measures to ensure that, when workers referred to in paragraph 2 establish, before a court or other competent authority or body, facts from which it may be presumed that there has been such a dismissal or equivalent measures, it shall be for the employer to prove that the dismissal was based on grounds other than those referred to in paragraph 1.

4. Paragraph 3 shall not prevent Member States from introducing rules of evidence which are more favourable to workers.

5. Member States shall not be required to apply paragraph 3 to proceedings in which it is for the court or other competent authority or body to investigate the facts of the case.

6. Paragraph 3 shall not apply to criminal proceedings, unless otherwise provided by the Member State.