Case C-135/15: Judgment of the Court (Grand Chamber) of 18 October 2016 (request for a preliminary ruling from the Bundesarbeitsgericht — Germany) — Republik Griechenland v Grigorios Nikiforidis (Reference for a preliminary ruling — Judicial cooperation in civil matters — Law applicable to an employment contract — Regulation (EC) No 593/2008 — Article 28 — Temporal scope — Article 9 — Concept of ‘overriding mandatory provisions’ — Application of overriding mandatory provisions of Member States other than the State of the forum — Legislation of a Member State imposing a reduction in public sector pay because of a budgetary crisis — Duty of sincere cooperation)
Date: 2016-10-18
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: economic recession, international labour law, judicial cooperation in civil matters in the EU, pay cut, private international law, public sector, work contract








C_2016475EN.01000401.xml










19.12.2016   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


C 475/4





Judgment of the Court (Grand Chamber) of 18 October 2016 (request for a preliminary ruling from the Bundesarbeitsgericht — Germany) — Republik Griechenland v Grigorios Nikiforidis
(Case C-135/15) (1)

((Reference for a preliminary ruling - Judicial cooperation in civil matters - Law applicable to an employment contract - Regulation (EC) No 593/2008 - Article 28 - Temporal scope - Article 9 - Concept of ‘overriding mandatory provisions’ - Application of overriding mandatory provisions of Member States other than the State of the forum - Legislation of a Member State imposing a reduction in public sector pay because of a budgetary crisis - Duty of sincere cooperation))
(2016/C 475/05)
Language of the case: German

Referring court

Bundesarbeitsgericht

Parties to the main proceedings


Appellant: Republik Griechenland

Respondent: Grigorios Nikiforidis

Operative part of the judgment







1.


Article 28 of 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) must be interpreted as meaning that a contractual employment relationship that came into being before 17 December 2009 falls within the scope of the regulation only in so far as that relationship has undergone, as a result of mutual agreement of the contracting parties which has manifested itself on or after that date, a variation of such magnitude that a new employment contract must be regarded as having been concluded on or after that date, a matter which is for the referring court to determine.










2.


Article 9(3) of Regulation No 593/2008 must be interpreted as precluding overriding mandatory provisions other than those of the State of the forum or of the State where the obligations arising out of the contract have to be or have been performed from being applied, as legal rules, by the court of the forum, but as not precluding it from taking such other overriding mandatory provisions into account as matters of fact in so far as this is provided for by the national law that is applicable to the contract pursuant to the regulation. This interpretation is not affected by the principle of sincere cooperation laid down in Article 4(3) TEU.






(1)  OJ C 198, 15.6.2015.