Judgment — ECLI:EU:C:1998:595
Date: 1998-12-10
Language of the case: German;Spanish
Court formation: Fifth Chamber
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Social Policy
Concepts: Employment protection and protection of employees in the event of the insolvency of their employer
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Germany;Spain

Summary of the Judgment
Social policy — Approximation of laws — Transfers of undertakings — Safeguarding of employees'
rights — Directive 77/187 — Scope — Situation where a public body contracts out a service or
awards a contract, thitherto entrusted to one undertaking, to another undertaking — Covered —
Conditions
(Council Directive 77/187, Art. 1(1))
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SUMMARY— JOINED CASES C-173/96 AND C-247/96
Article 1(1) of Directive 77/187 on the approx­
imation of the laws of the Member States
relating to the safeguarding of employees'
rights in the event of transfers of undertak­
ings, businesses or parts of businesses is to be
interpreted as meaning that the Directive
applies to a situation in which a public body
which has contracted out its home-help ser­
vice for persons in need or awarded a con­
tract for maintaining surveillance of some of
its premises to a first undertaking decides,
upon expiry of or after termination of that
contract, to contract out the service or award
the contract to a second undertaking, pro­
vided that the operation is accompanied by
the transfer of an economic entity between
the two undertakings. The term 'economic
entity' refers to an organised grouping of per­
sons and assets enabling an economic activity
which pursues a specific objective to be exer­
cised. The mere fact that the service succes­
sively provided by the old and the new under­
taking to which the service is contracted out
or the contract is awarded is similar does not
justify the conclusion that a transfer of such
an entity has occurred.
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