This article proposes a new explanatory framework to understand the transversal developments that emerge from the recent case law of the Court of Justice of the EU on the Framework Employment Directive. It argues that the Court operates a functional differentiation in the implementation of anti-discrimination norms, which gives rise to a complex interpretation architecture. Following the constitutionalisation of EU equality law, the Court reads three main functions into the Framework Employment Directive: socialisation, integrity and calibration. This differentiation gives rise to competing interpretive paradigms and analytical templates that affect the level and shape of equality protection under the Directive.