Case C-30/10

Lotta Andersson

v

Staten genom Kronofogdemyndigheten i Jönköping, Tillsynsmyndigheten

(Reference for a preliminary ruling from the Linköpings tingsrätt)

‛Reference for a preliminary ruling — Directive 80/987/EEC — Article 10(c) — National provision — Guarantee of payment of employees’ outstanding claims — Exclusion of persons who, in the six months before the application for a declaration of insolvency by the undertaking employing them was lodged, owned an essential part of that undertaking and had a considerable influence over it’

Judgment of the Court (Eighth Chamber), 10 February 2011   I - 515

Summary of the Judgment

Social policy — Approximation of laws — Protection of employees in the event of the insolvency of their employer — Option for Member States to refuse or reduce the liability or guarantee obligation — Scope

(European Parliament and Council Directive 2008/94, Art. 12(c))

Article 12(c) of Directive 2008/94 relating to the protection of employees in the event of the insolvency of their employer must be interpreted as not precluding a provision of national law which excludes an employee from entitlement to the guarantee of payment of employees’ outstanding claims on the ground that the employee, alone or together with close relatives, within the six months preceding the application for a declaration of insolvency, was the owner of an essential part of the undertaking or business concerned and had a considerable influence on its activities. Indeed, in such circumstances, it cannot be excluded that an employee, who is refused entitlement to the guarantee, could be responsible for the insolvency of the undertaking in question.

(see paras 27-28 and operative part)