CELEX: C1997/181/01
Language: en
Date: 1997-06-14 00:00:00
Title: JUDGMENT OF THE COURT (Third Chamber) of 17 April 1997 in Case C-336/95 (reference for a preliminary ruling from the Juzgado de lo Social No 16, Barcelona): Pedro Burdalo Trevejo and Others v. Fondo de Garantía Salarial (Directive 77/187/EEC - Transfers of undertakings - Experience taken into account by a guarantee institution for calculating redundancy payments)

14 . 6 . 97           EN                   Official Journal of the European Communities                                No C 181 / 1
                                                                    I
                                                             (Information)
                                                 COURT OF JUSTICE
                                                          COURT OF JUSTICE
                JUDGMENT OF THE COURT                                  an undertaking which took place before the Directive had
                        (Third Chamber)                                begun to produce legal effects in the Member State
                                                                       concerned.
                        of 17 April 1997
in Case C-336/95 ( reference for a preliminary ruling from             (') OJ No C 351 , 30 . 12 . 1995 .
the Juzgado de lo Social N° 16, Barcelona ): Pedro Burdalo
     Treveio and Others v. Fondo de Garantía Salarial ( 1 )
 (Directive 77/187/EEC — Transfers of undertakings —
Experience taken into account by a guarantee institution               Action brought on 17 March 1997 by the Kingdom of the
             for calculating redundancy payments)                         Netherlands against the Council of the European Union
                          ( 97/C 181 /01 )                                                     ( Case C-l 10/97 )
                                                                                                  ( 97/C 181 /02 )
                 (Language of the case: Spanish)
                                                                       An action against the Council of the European Union was
                                                                       brought before the Court of Justice of the European
                                                                       Communities on 17 March 1997 by the Kingdom of the
  (Provisional translation; the definitive translation will be
                                                                       Netherlands, represented by Marc Fierstra , acting as
           published in the European Court Reports)
                                                                       Agent.
In Case C-336/95 : reference to the Court under Article 177
                                                                       The applicant claims that the Court should :
of the EC Treaty by the Juzgado de lo Social N° 16 , Barce­            — annul Council Regulation ( EC ) No 304/97 of
lona ( Spain ) for a preliminary ruling in the proceedings                  17 February 1997 introducing safeguard measures in
pending before that court between Burdalo Trevejo and                      respect of imports of rice originating in the overseas
Others     and    Fondo   de   Garanti'a   Salarial —    on  the
                                                                           countries and territories ('),
interpretation of Article 1 ( 1 ) and the second
subparagraph of Article 3 ( 3 ) of Council Directive 77/187/          — order the Council to pay the costs of the proceedings .
EEC of 14 February 1977 on the approximation of the
laws of the Member States relating to the safeguarding of              Pleas in law and main arguments adduced in support:
employees' rights in the event of transfers of undertakings,
businesses or parts of business ( OJ No L 61 , 5 . 3 . 1977,          — Breach of Article 109 ( 1 ) of Council Decision 91 /482/
p. 26 ) — the Court (Third Chamber ), composed of J. C.                    EEC of 25 July 1991 on the association of the
Moitinho de Almeida , President of the Chamber, C.                         overseas countries and territories with the European
Gulmann and J. -P. Puissochet ( Rapporteur ), Judges; G.                   Economic Community (2 ) ( hereafter referred to as 'the
Cosmas, Advocate-General; R. Grass, Registrar, has given                   OCT Decision '): in the first place, it is wrongly
a judgment on 17 April 1997, in which it has ruled:                        assumed    that    Article     109  of the OCT Decision
                                                                           provides authorization for taking safeguard measures
                                                                           by reason of the scale or price of products imported
Council Directive 77/187/EEC of 14 February 1977 on                        from the OCT; second, it is patently incorrect to speak
the approximation of the laws of the Member States                         of rice originating in the OCT being imported at such
relating to the safeguarding of employees ' rights in the                  low prices and in such large quantities as to cause an
event of transfers of undertakings, businesses or parts of                 actual or potential distortion of the Community
businesses cannot be relied on in relation to a transfer of                market in rice .