Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2003:279
Date: 2003-05-15
Language of the case: Italian
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Social Policy
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Italy

Summary of the Judgment Social policy – Approximation of laws – Protection of employees in the event of their employer’s insolvency – Directive 80/987 – Limitation of liability of the guarantee institutions to a sum which covers the employees’ basic needs – Deduction of payments made by the employer during the period covered by the guarantee – Not permissible (Council Directive 80/987, Arts 3(1), 4(3), first subpara, and 10) Article 3(1) and the first subparagraph of Article 4(3) of Directive 80/987 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the protection of employees in the event of the insolvency of their employer are to be interpreted as meaning that they do not allow a Member State to limit the liability of the guarantee institutions to a sum which covers the basic needs of the employees concerned and from which are to be deducted payments made by the employer during the period covered by the guarantee. While the Member States are entitled to set a ceiling to the liability for outstanding claims, they are bound to ensure, within the limit of that ceiling, the payment of all the outstanding claims in question. Any part payments received on account by the employees concerned on their claims in respect of the guarantee period must be deducted therefrom in order to determine the extent to which they are outstanding. On the other hand, a rule against aggregation according to which remuneration paid to the said employees during the period covered by the guarantee must be deducted from the ceiling set by the Member State to the liability for outstanding claims directly undermines the minimum protection guaranteed by the directive. (see paras 36-38, 40, operative part)