Virginie Marie Gabrielle Guigo v Fond 'Garantirani vzemania na rabotnitsite i sluzhitelite'.
Date: 2018-07-25
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According to the Court’s well-established case-law, the social objective of that directive is to guarantee employees a minimum of protection at EU level in the event of the employer’s insolvency through payment of outstanding claims resulting from contracts of employment or employment relationships and relating to pay for a specific period (judgments of 28 November 2013, Gomes Viana Novo and Others, C‑309/12, EU:C:2013:774, paragraph 20, and of 2 March 2017, Eschenbrenner, C‑496/15, EU:C:2017:152, paragraph 52 and the case-law cited).
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However, as the Court has already noted, Directive 2008/94 confers on the Member States the power to limit the payment obligation by fixing a reference period or a guarantee period and/or setting ceilings on payments (see, by analogy with Directive 80/987, judgment of 28 November 2013, Gomes Viana Novo and Others, C‑309/12, EU:C:2013:774, paragraph 22, and order of 10 April 2014, Macedo Maia and Others, C‑511/12, not published, EU:C:2014:268, paragraph 21).
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According to the case-law of the Court, the provisions of Directive 2008/94 concerning the power available to Member States to limit their guarantee demonstrate that the system established by that directive takes account of the financial capacity of those Member States and seeks to preserve the financial stability of their guarantee institutions (see, by analogy, judgment of 28 November 2013, Gomes Viana Novo and Others, C‑309/12, EU:C:2013:774, paragraph 29, and order of 10 April 2014, Macedo Maia and Others, C‑511/12, not published, EU:C:2014:268, paragraph 21).
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On the other hand, under Article 4(1) of Directive 2008/94, the Member States are to have the option to limit the liability of the guarantee institutions referred to in Article 3. According to Article 4(2) of the same directive, if Member States exercise that option, they are to specify the length of the period for which outstanding claims are to be met by the guarantee institution, which may not be shorter than a period covering the remuneration of the last three months of the employment relationship prior to and/or after the date referred to in the second paragraph of Article 3. Those provisions also give Member States the option of including that minimum period of three months in reference period which may not be shorter than six months, and of providing for a minimum guarantee limited to eight weeks, provided that that eight-week period is within a longer reference period of at least 18 months (see, by analogy, judgment of 28 November 2013, Gomes Viana Novo and Others, C‑309/12, EU:C:2013:774, paragraph 26).
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It should be noted that the cases in which it is permitted to limit the payment obligation of the guarantee institutions, as laid down in Article 4 of Directive 2008/94, must be interpreted strictly (see, by analogy, judgments of 17 November 2011, van Ardennen, C‑435/10, EU:C:2011:751, paragraph 34, and of 28 November 2013, Gomes Viana Novo and Others, C‑309/12, EU:C:2013:774, paragraph 31). However, such a restrictive interpretation cannot deprive of its effectiveness the option expressly conferred on Member States to limit that payment obligation (see, to that effect, judgment of 28 November 2013, Gomes Viana Novo and Others, C‑309/12, EU:C:2013:774, paragraph 32).