Josef Plum v Allgemeine Ortskrankenkasse Rheinland, Regionaldirektion Köln.
Date: 2000-11-09
14 It should be borne in mind at the outset that Article 14(1)(a) of Regulation No 1408/71 constitutes an exception to the rule laid down in Article 13(2)(a) thereof, under which a worker is subject to the legislation of the Member State in the territory of which he is employed (Case C-202/97 Fitzwilliam Technical Services v Bestuur van het Landelijk Instituut Sociale Verzekeringen [2000] ECR I-883, paragraph 30).
18 The Court would reiterate that, according to its settled case-law, the provisions of Title II of Regulation No 1408/71, of which Article 14 forms part, constitute a complete and uniform system of conflict rules the aim of which is to ensure that workers moving within the Community shall be subject to the social security scheme of only one Member State, in order to prevent the system of legislation of more than one Member State from being applicable and to avoid the complications which may result from that situation (see, in particular, Fitzwilliam Technical Services, cited above, paragraph 20).
19 The purpose of Article 14(1)(a) of Regulation No 1408/71 is, in particular, to promote freedom to provide services for the benefit of undertakings which avail themselves of it by sending workers to Member States other than that in which they are established. It is aimed at overcoming obstacles likely to impede freedom of movement of workers and also at encouraging economic interpenetration whilst avoiding administrative complications, in particular for workers and undertakings (Case 35/70 Manpower v Caisse Primaire d'Assurance Maladie, Strasbourg [1970] ECR 1251, paragraph 10, and Fitzwilliam Technical Services, paragraph 28).
20 As the Court held in paragraph 11 of its judgment in Manpower, cited above, in order to prevent an undertaking established in a Member State from being obliged to register its workers, normally subject to the social security legislation of that State, with the social security system of another Member State where they are sent to perform work of short duration - which would complicate exercise of freedom to provide services - Article 14(1)(a) of Regulation No 1408/71 allows the undertaking to keep its workers registered under the social security system of the first Member State if the undertaking observes the conditions governing that freedom to provide services (Fitzwilliam Technical Services, paragraph 29).
21 At paragraphs 33 and 45 of its judgment in Fitzwilliam Technical Services, the Court concluded from those considerations that, in order to benefit from the advantage afforded by Article 14(1)(a) of Regulation No 1408/71, an undertaking engaged in providing temporary personnel which, from one Member State, makes workers available to undertakings based in another Member State must normally carry on its activities in the first State, that is to say, it must habitually carry on significant activities there.
22 It follows that a construction company, established in one Member State, which sends its workers to the territory of another Member State in which it performs all its activities, with the exception of purely internal management activities, cannot rely on Article 14(1)(a) of Regulation No 1408/71.