Judgment — ECLI:EU:C:2013:235
Date: 2013-04-11
Language of the case: Italian
Court formation: Eighth Chamber
Subject matter: Social Policy
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Italy

Summary — Judgment of the Court (Eighth Chamber), 11 April 2013 1. Questions referred for a preliminary ruling — Admissibility — Limits — Clearly irrelevant questions and hypothetical questions put in a context not permitting a useful answer (Art. 267 TFEU) 2. Acts of the institutions — Preamble — Binding legal force — None (Council Directive 1999/70, Annex) 3. Social policy — Framework agreement on fixed-term work concluded by ETUC, UNICE and CEEP — Directive 1999/70 — Scope — Contract or fixed-term employment relationship between a temporary worker and a temporary employment business — Not included — Contract or fixed-term employment relationship between a temporary worker and a user undertaking — Not included (Council Directive 1999/70, Annex, clause 3, para. 1) 1. See the text of the decision. (see para. 29) 2. See the text of the decision. (see para. 38) 3. Directive 1999/70 concerning the framework agreement on fixed‑term work concluded by ETUC, UNICE and CEEP, and Framework Agreement itself, set out in the Annex to that directive, must be interpreted as not applying either to the fixed-term employment relationship between a temporary worker and a temporary employment business or to the employment relationship between such a worker and a user undertaking. In fact, it is explicitly stated in the fourth paragraph of the preamble to the Framework Agreement, reflected in clause 3(1) of the Framework Agreement, that it does not apply to fixed-term workers placed by a temporary work agency at the disposition of a user enterprise, it being the intention of the parties to conclude a similar agreement relating to temporary agency work. Regulation of temporary agency work is precisely the purpose behind Directive 2008/104 on temporary agency work, which, as evidenced by recitals 5 and 7 in the preamble thereto, was adopted by the EU legislature following the failure of negotiations between the social partners to conclude such an agreement. (see paras 36, 39, 42, 45, operative part)