Tribunalul Galati; 2019-05-22; 3120/121/2018
Decision by national courts in the field of European Union law — ECLI:RO:TBGLT:2019:014.000592
Date: 2019-05-22
Subject matter: Judicial cooperation in civil matters
Origin: Romania

82019RO0522(51)_ENG_SUMJURE
JURE summary
JURE summary
The case regards a labour dispute resolved by the Tribunalul Galați (hereinafter ‘Court of First Instance’).
A plaintiff brought a case before the Court of First Instance and sought payment of outstanding wages amounting to USD 26 770 resulting from several fixed-term seafarer employment contracts.
The defendants invoked Article 3 (Freedom of choice) of the Rome I Regulation (1), Article 7(5) and Article 25 of the Brussels I Regulation (recast) (2) in connection with Point 14 of the employment contract, which favours the court of Malta to hear any potential disputes. They objected to the lack of jurisdiction of the Romanian courts and requested the application to be dismissed as unfounded.
The Court of First Instance dismissed the objection of lack of jurisdiction and examined the documents provided by the parties. The Codul Muncii (3) provides the general framework for labour relations (for example, to carry out the work and pay for it). The individual employment contracts then specify the labour relation and obligations arising from it. The plaintiff reliably proved the existence of the employment contract. It is then on the defendants to demonstrate that the obligation to pay the wages was fulfilled. The defendants, in this case, failed to do so and were not able to prove the payment of all remuneration agreed.
The Court of First Instance ordered the defendants to pay the requested sum. The plaintiff was also awarded damages for late payment as determined by the national legislation.
(1) Regulation (EC) No 593/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 June 2008 on the law applicable to contractual obligations (Rome I).
(2) Regulation (EU) No 1215/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2012 on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters.
(3)  Codul Muncii (The Labour Code).