In a judgment handed down on Thursday 11 December (Case C-485/24), the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has clarified how to determine the applicable law in the event of a change of habitual place of work.
In France, a French national went to court to challenge his dismissal by the Luxembourg company Locatrans, with which he had worked as a driver since 2002. During his working years, he gradually concentrated his activity in France, which his employer recognised in 2014 when it asked him to join the French social security system.
Referred to by the French Court of Cassation, the CJEU is of the opinion that the new place of work intended to become the habitual place of work must be taken into account when examining all the circumstances with a view to determining the law that would be applicable, if the parties have not chosen it in advance.
The 1980 Rome Convention on the law applicable to contractual obligations limits the parties’ freedom to choose the applicable law so as not to deprive employees of adequate protection. It provides for two connecting criteria: - the country where the employee habitually carries out his work, or; - the law of the country in which the establishment that hired the employee is located.
According to the Court, the first criterion does not make it possible to identify a country where, in the course of the employment relationship as a whole, the habitual place of work has moved from one country to another. It is therefore necessary to refer to the second criterion, that of the head office of the establishment that took on the worker, in this case Bettembourg, in Luxembourg.
However, the Court of Justice points out that the French Court of Cassation will have to determine whether it is clear from all the circumstances that the employment contract in question nevertheless has closer links with France. As part of this examination, it will have to take into account all the elements that characterise the employment relationship, such as the driver’s last usual place of work and the obligation to join the French social security system.
See the Court’s judgment: https://aeur.eu/f/jy0 (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)