Official Journal of the European Union

C 419/18

(Joined Cases C-184/15 and C-197/15) (<span class="super note-tag">1</span>)

((Reference for a preliminary ruling - Social policy - Directive 1999/70/EC - Framework agreement on fixed-term work concluded by ETUC, UNICE and CEEP - Clauses 5 and 8 - Use of successive fixed-term employment contracts - Measures to prevent abuse resulting from the use of successive fixed-term employment contracts or relationships - Penalties - Reclassification of the fixed-term employment relationship as a ‘non-permanent employment contract of indefinite duration’ - Principle of effectiveness))

(2016/C 419/22)

Language of the case: Spanish

Referring court

Parties to the main proceedings

Applicants: Florentina Martínez Andrés (C-184/15), Juan Carlos Castrejana López (C-197/15)

Defendants: Servicio Vasco de Salud (C-184/15), Ayuntamiento de Vitoria (C-197/15)

Operative part of the judgment

1.Clause 5(1) of the framework agreement on fixed-term work, concluded on 18 March 1999, which is set out in the annex to Council Directive 1999/70/EC of 28 June 1999 concerning the framework agreement on fixed-term work concluded by ETUC, UNICE and CEEP, must be interpreted as precluding national legislation, such as that at issue in the main proceedings, from being applied by the national courts of the Member State concerned in such a manner that, in the event of abuse resulting from the use of successive fixed-term employment contracts, a right to maintain the employment relationship is granted to persons employed by the authorities under an employment contract governed by the rules of employment law, but that right is not conferred, in general, on staff employed by those authorities under administrative law, unless there is another effective measure in the national law to penalise such abuses with regard to the latter staff, which it is for the national court to determine.

2.The provisions of the framework agreement on fixed-term work which is set out in the annex to Directive 1999/70, read in conjunction with the principle of effectiveness, must be interpreted as precluding national procedural rules which require a fixed-term worker to bring a new action in order to determine the appropriate penalty where abuse resulting from the use of successive fixed-term employment contracts has been established by a judicial authority, to the extent that it results in procedural disadvantages for that worker, in terms, inter alia, of cost, duration and the rules of representation, liable to render excessively difficult the exercise of the rights conferred on him by EU law.

(<span class="note">1</span>) OJ C 236, 20.7.2015.