Luxembourg, 15/09/2000 (Agence Europe) - In its Renato Collino and Luisella Chiappero ruling against Telecom italia SpA (case C-343/98), the Court of Justice specified that Community law protected the rights of people transferred from a public body to a company under private law, if, in that public body, they were initially subjected to national labour law.
Ms. Chiappero and Mr. Collino had, until 31 October 1993, worked at ASST (Azienda di Stato per i Servizi Telefonici), Italian public body responsible for the management of certain telecommunications services intended for the public, before, on 1 November 1993, being transferred to Iritel, company under private law. The latter was then taken over by SIP (Societa Italiana per le Telecommunicazioni SpA) to become Telecom Italia SpA. Both remained at its service until their retirement. Once retired, they lodged an appeal, on 19 October 1997, before the Pretore di Pinerolo (Italian court) against Telecom Italia SpA, disputing the modalities of their transfer from ASST to Iritel. They had asked Telecom Italia SpA to recognize the length of service they had acquired between their entry into ASST and their retirement, in view of recalculating their departure benefits and former wage increases.
Considering that the solution to the dispute depended on an interpretation of Community legislation, the Pretore di Pinerolo questioned the EC Court of Justice on implementation of Directive 77/187/EEC relating to the retention of workers' rights when companies, establishments or parts of establishments transfer, to see whether the directive applied in the precise case of the transfer from a public body to a company under private law. The Court replied that:
1. the directive's provisions apply to any transfer from an entity exercising an economic activity, whether or not it does so for lucrative purposes (the mere fact that the activity be managed by a public body is thus not enough to discard the application of the directive);
2. the rules of the directive do not however apply if the activity being considered is seen as being exercised by a public authority (for example, in case of a reorganisation of the structures of a public administration or the transfer of administrative duties between public administrations). Basing itself on previous case law, the Court reached the conclusion that the sale of ASST (public body)to Iritel (company with public capital) enters into the directive's material field of application;
3. only those people subjected to national labour legislation may benefit from the provisions of this text. Under these conditions, the Court considers that the national jurisdiction will have to examine whether the employees transferred from ASST to Iritel were subject to national labour law or a statute of public law (in the latter case, the directive would not be applicable to them).