Süleyman Eker v Land Baden-Württemberg.
Date: 1997-05-29
18 To answer that question, it should be observed, first, that since its judgment in Case C-192/89 Sevince v Staatssecretaris van Justitie [1990] ECR I-3461 the Court has consistently held that Article 6(1) of Decision No 1/80 has direct effect in the Member States, so that Turkish nationals who satisfy its conditions may rely directly on the rights conferred on them by the various indents of that provision (see, most recently, Case C-171/95 Tetik v Land Berlin [1997] ECR I-0000, paragraph 22).
19 Second, the Court has consistently held that the rights which the three indents of Article 6(1) confer on a Turkish worker in regard to employment necessarily imply the existence of a right of residence for the person concerned, since otherwise the right of access to the labour market and the right to work as an employed person would be deprived of all effect (see, most recently, Tetik, paragraph 24).
21 On this point, it should be noted that the three indents of Article 6(1) confer on Turkish workers rights which vary and are subject to conditions which differ according to the duration of legal employment in the relevant Member State (see, most recently, Tetik, paragraph 23).
23 The coherence of the system of gradual integration of Turkish workers in the host State's labour force, established by the three indents of Article 6(1), would be disrupted if the worker had the right to enter the service of another employer even before satisfying the condition of one year's legal employment specified in the first indent of Article 6(1). In accordance with the second indent of Article 6(1), it is only after three years of legal employment in the Member State concerned that a Turkish worker is entitled to take up work with a different employer, on condition that the employer is engaged in the same business as the previous employer and respects the priority to be given to workers of the Member States.
25 It follows that in a case such as that in point in the main proceedings where the competent national authorities have authorized a Turkish worker to change employers before completing one year of legal employment with the first employer in respect of whom the work and residence permits were issued, the right to renewal of those permits, referred to in the first indent of Article 6(1), arises only on expiry of a further period of one year's legal employment.
27 In Case C-355/93 Eroglu v Land Baden-Württemberg [1994] ECR I-5113 the Court has already interpreted the first indent of Article 6(1) of Decision No 1/80 as not conferring the right to renewal of his permit to work for his first employer on a Turkish national who worked for more than a year for that employer and then for some ten months for another employer.
28 In that judgment the Court pointed out that the aim of that provision is solely to ensure continuity of employment with the same employer and that the provision is accordingly applicable only where a Turkish worker requests an extension of his work permit in order to continue working for the same employer after the initial period of one year's legal employment (paragraph 13).
29 The Court then stated that extending the application of that provision to a Turkish worker who, after one year's legal employment, has changed employers and is seeking an extension of his work permit in order to work for the first employer again would allow that worker to change employers under that provision before the expiry of the period of three years prescribed in the second indent and would also deprive workers of the Member States of the priority conferred on them pursuant to that indent when a Turkish worker changes employers (paragraph 14).
30 While the facts of that case admittedly differ from those of the main proceedings in this case, in that Ms Eroglu had changed employers after one year's legal employment in the host Member State and sought renewal of her work permit in order to work for her first employer again, the Court's interpretation in that judgment of the first indent of Article 6(1) must apply a fortiori in a case such as Mr Eker's, where a Turkish worker has changed employers before the end of the first year of employment in the Member State concerned and applies for an extension of his residence permit in order to continue working for his new employer before even completing one year's legal employment with that employer.
31 In the light of all the foregoing considerations, the answer to the national court's question must be that the first indent of Article 6(1) of Decision No 1/80 must be interpreted as making the extension of a Turkish worker's residence permit in the host Member State subject to his having been legally employed continuously for one year with the same employer.