Reference for a preliminary ruling from the Juzgado de lo Social Único de Algeciras (Spain) lodged on 28 April 2009 — Federación de Servicios Públicos de la UGT (UGT-FSP) v Ayuntamiento de la Línea de la Concepción, María del Rosario Vecino Uribe and Others, and the Ministerio Fiscal

(Case C-151/09)

2009/C 167/05

Language of the case: Spanish

Referring court

Juzgado de lo Social Único de Algeciras

Parties to the main proceedings

Applicant: Federación de Servicios Públicos de la UGT (UGT-FSP)

Defendants: Ayuntamiento de la Línea de la Concepción, María del Rosario Vecino Uribe and Others,

the Ministerio Fiscal

Question referred

Is the requirement that autonomy be preserved — referred to in Article 6(1) of Directive 2001/23/EC (1) of 12 March 2001 — met in a factual situation (such as that in the main proceedings) in which, following the recovery of various outsourced public services by a municipal authority, the employees who were part of the staff of the actual undertakings which until then had provided the outsourced municipal services are taken on by that municipal administration and integrated into its staff, but it is those same employees (without exception) who continue to hold the same posts and carry out the same duties as before, in the same places of work and under the instruction of the same immediate superiors (hierarchical superiors), without significant changes in the working conditions, the sole difference being that now their overall managers (above the previous superiors) are the relevant publicly elected officials (councillors or mayor)?

(1)  On the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the safeguarding of employees’ rights in the event of transfers of undertakings, businesses or parts of undertakings or businesses (OJ 2001 L 82, p. 16).