Berg And Busschers v Besselsen: ECJ 5 May 1988

Europa Social Policy – Article 3(1) of Directive 77/187/EEC which concerns the safeguarding of employees’ rights in the event of transfers of undertakings must be interpreted as meaning that after the date of transfer, and by virtue of the transfer alone, the transferor is discharged from all obligations arising under the contract or the employment relationship, even if the workers employed in the undertaking do not consent or if they object, subject however to the power of the Member States to provide for joint liability of the transferor and the transferee after the date of transfer.
Article 1(1) of Directive 77/187/EEC of 14 February 1977 must be interpreted as meaning that the directive applies both to the transfer of an undertaking pursuant to a lease-purchase agreement of the kind available under Netherlands law and to the retransfer of the undertaking upon the termination of the lease-purchase agreement by judicial decision.
The Acquired Rights Directive is ‘intended to safeguard the rights of workers in the event of a change of employer by making it possible for them to continue to work for the transferee under the same conditions as those agreed with the transferor. Its purpose is not, however, to ensure that the contract of employment or the employment relationship with the transferor is continued where the undertaking’s employees do not wish to remain in the transferee’s employ.’

Citations:

C-144/87, R-145/87, [1988] EUECJ R-145/87, [1988] ECR 2559

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Directive 77/187/EEC 3(1)

Cited by:

CitedNorth Wales Training and Enterprise Council Ltd v Astley and others HL 21-Jun-2006
Civil servants had been transferred to a private company. At first they worked under secondment from the civil service. They asserted that they had protection under TUPE and the Acquired Rights Directive. The respondent said that there had only been . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

European, Employment

Updated: 21 June 2022; Ref: scu.215597