Case C-405/08: Judgment of the Court (Third Chamber) of 11 February 2010 (reference for a preliminary ruling from the Vestre Landsret — Denmark) — Ingeniørforeningen i Danmark, acting on behalf of Bertram Holst v Dansk Arbejdsgiverforening, acting on behalf of Babcock & Wilcox Vølund ApS (Social policy — Informing and consulting employees — Directive 2002/14/EC — Transposition of Directive 2002/14/EC by way of legislation and also by way of collective agreement — Effects of the collective agreement with regard to an employee who is not a member of the union which is a party to that agreement — Article 7 — Protection of employees’ representatives — Requirement of more extensive protection against dismissal — No requirement)
Date: 2010-02-11
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: Denmark, interpretation of the law, socioprofessional category, trade union








C_2010080EN.01000202.xml










27.3.2010   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


C 80/2





Judgment of the Court (Third Chamber) of 11 February 2010 (reference for a preliminary ruling from the Vestre Landsret — Denmark) — Ingeniørforeningen i Danmark, acting on behalf of Bertram Holst v Dansk Arbejdsgiverforening, acting on behalf of Babcock & Wilcox Vølund ApS
(Case C-405/08) (1)

(Social policy - Informing and consulting employees - Directive 2002/14/EC - Transposition of Directive 2002/14/EC by way of legislation and also by way of collective agreement - Effects of the collective agreement with regard to an employee who is not a member of the union which is a party to that agreement - Article 7 - Protection of employees’ representatives - Requirement of more extensive protection against dismissal - No requirement)
2010/C 80/04
Language of the case: Danish

Referring court

Vestre Landsret

Parties to the main proceedings


Applicant: Ingeniørforeningen i Danmark, acting on behalf of Bertram Holst

Defendant: Dansk Arbejdsgiverforening, acting on behalf of Babcock & Wilcox Vølund ApS

Re:

Reference for a preliminary ruling — Vestre Landsret — Interpretation of Article 7 of Directive 2002/14/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2002 establishing a general framework for informing and consulting employees in the European Community — Joint declaration of the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission on employee representation (OJ 2002 L 80, p. 29) — Implementation of the directive through a collective agreement — Effects of the collective agreement for an employee who is not a member of the union which concluded that agreement — Implementing legislation not providing for a higher standard of protection against dismissal than currently provided for, in respect of groups of employees not covered by the collective agreement

Operative part of the judgment







1.


Directive 2002/14/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2002 establishing a general framework for informing and consulting employees in the European Community must be interpreted as not precluding its transposition by way of a collective agreement which results in a group of employees being covered by the agreement in question, even though the employees in that group are not members of the union which is a party to that agreement and their field of activity is not represented by that union, provided that the collective agreement is such as to guarantee to the employees coming within its scope effective protection of the rights conferred on them by Directive 2002/14.










2.


Article 7 of Directive 2002/14 must be interpreted as not requiring that more extensive protection against dismissal be granted to employees’ representatives. However, any measure adopted to transpose that directive, whether provided for by legislation or by collective agreement, must comply with the minimum protection threshold laid down in that Article 7.






(1)  OJ C 301, 22.11.2008.