Judgment of the Court (Eighth Chamber) of 13 June 2019.
Cátia Correia Moreira v Município de Portimão.
Request for a preliminary ruling from the Tribunal Judicial da Comarca de Faro.
Reference for a preliminary ruling — Directive 2001/23/EC — Transfers of undertakings — Safeguarding of employees’ rights — Concept of ‘worker’ — Substantial change in working conditions to the detriment of the employee.
Case C-317/18. (2019)
Language: English

Ms Correia Moreira applied to the Tribunal Judicial da Comarca de Faro (District Court, Faro, Portugal) for a declaration that her contract of employment with Portimão Urbis was transferred to the Municipality of Portimão from 1 January 2015, as a result of the transfer of the establishment where she worked. In view of the transfer of Portimão Urbis, she is asking the referring court to declare that the subsequent termination of the contract of employment is unlawful and that she must be brought into the workforce of the Municipality of Portimão under the same conditions as those applied to her by Portimão Urbis since 1 January 2015.
In addition, she is seeking an order that the Municipality of Portimão pay her the differences in salary between the salary which the municipality was required to pay her after that transfer and the salary which was actually paid to her. Finally, she is seeking an order that the Municipality of Portimão pay her compensation for non-material harm.
The Municipality of Portimão disputes the claims of Ms Correia Moreira arguing, first, that there was no transfer of an establishment, since the municipal undertaking was wound up in accordance with the law and the municipality merely took back the responsibilities with which it was originally entrusted, secondly, that Ms Correia Moreira performed her duties in connection with a position of trust and therefore she was not an employee of Portimão Urbis and, thirdly, that the Municipality of Portimão merely complied with the legal rules arising from Article 62 of Law No 50/2012 of 31 August 2012 in the version applicable to the main proceedings, according to which all municipal officials are recruited following specific rules and are subject to the principle of equal treatment with regard to access to the civil service laid down in Article 47(2) of the Constitution.

Legal relationship diagram (Graphviz):
digraph {
    rankdir=LR;
    node [shape=box];
    
   "Ms Correia Moreira"[shape=doubleoctagon];
   "Tribunal Judicial da Comarca de Faro (District Court, Faro, Portugal)"[shape=doubleoctagon];
   "Municipality of Portimão"[shape=doubleoctagon];

   "Ms Correia Moreira"->"Applied for a declaration";
   "Applied for a declaration"->"Tribunal Judicial da Comarca de Faro (District Court, Faro, Portugal)";
   "Applied for a declaration"->"Her contract of employment with Portimão Urbis was transferred to the Municipality of Portimão from 1 January 2015"[dir=none];
   "Ms Correia Moreira"->"Seeking an order the Municipality of Portimão pay her the differences in salary between the salary which the municipality was required to pay her after that transfer and actually paid to her"[dir=none];
   "Municipality of Portimão"->"Disputes the claims of Ms Correia Moreira";
   "Disputes the claims of Ms Correia Moreira"->"Ms Correia Moreira";
   "Disputes the claims of Ms Correia Moreira"->"There was no transfer of an establishment"[dir=none];
   "Disputes the claims of Ms Correia Moreira"->"Ms Correia Moreira performed her duties in connection with a position of trust and therefore she was not an employee of Portimão Urbis"[dir=none];
   "Disputes the claims of Ms Correia Moreira"->"Municipality of Portimão merely complied with the legal rules arising from Article 62 of Law No 50/2012 of 31 August 2012 in the version applicable to the main proceedings"[dir=none];
}