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Social policy ° Approximation of laws ° Protection of employees in the event of the insolvency of their employer ° Directive 80/987 ° Scope ° Employees having contracts with employers who may be made subject to proceedings, involving their assets, to satisfy collectively the claims of creditors ° Breach of the principle of equal treatment ° None in view of the gradual nature and difficulty of harmonization
(EEC Treaty, Art. 100; Council Directive 80/987)
Council Directive 80/987 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the protection of employees in the event of the insolvency of their employer is to be interpreted as applying to all employees, other than those in the categories listed in the Annex thereto, whose employers may, under the applicable national law, be made subject to proceedings involving their assets in order to satisfy collectively the claims of creditors.
The fact that the directive thus protects only employees faced with a situation in which their employer is insolvent in accordance with that definition is not such as to call into question its validity in the light of the principle of equal treatment.
In the first place, in the exercise of the powers conferred on them by Article 100 of the Treaty, the Community institutions must be recognized as having a discretion in particular with regard to the possibility of proceeding towards harmonization only in stages, given the specific nature of the field in which coordination is sought and the difficulties involved in any harmonization.
In addition, it undoubtedly constitutes a further step towards providing improved working conditions and an improved standard of living for workers throughout the Community and towards the gradual harmonization of laws in the field for a system of guarantees previously available, in differing forms, in some Member States to be extended to all the Member States.
Finally, in the light of the difficulties inherent in the very concept of insolvency which the harmonization was intended to overcome, the objective criterion used to define the persons entitled to protection under that system is justified.