The fixed temporary work contract in the construction sector: limits to the chaining of contracts and company succession
Comment to the STJUE of June 24, 2021 (Case C-550/19)
Keywords:
Fixed work contract (in the construction sector), succession of temporary contracts, business transfer, subrogation in employment contracts, maintenance of workers' rights, European Union lawAbstract
The request for a preliminary ruling is presented in the context of a dispute between an employee and two companies - their former employer and their current employer - in relation to the recognition, on the one hand, of the seniority acquired by the years worked and, on the other, of the indefinite nature of their employment relationship. The Court of Justice declares that a situation such as that of the main proceedings, in which a public contract is re-awarded to a company and the company takes over an essential part of the personnel assigned to the outgoing company for the performance of that public contract, falls within the scope of Directive 2001/23/EC, so that the transferee is obliged to take into account all periods of employment covered by the subrogated personnel. Likewise, it declares that rules such as those contained in article 24, sections 2 and 5, of the general collective agreement of the construction sector, according to which each individual contract limits, in principle, the assignment of the worker in question to a single job, but that allows the renewal of the "fixed work" contracts indefinitely due to the accumulated effect of these successive contracts or the aggregation of these, show that said worker actually permanently and stably performs tasks that are part of the ordinary activity of the company that employs them.
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References
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