Judgment of the Court (Seventh Chamber) of 3 June 2021 (request for a preliminary ruling from the Tribunal Superior de Justicia de Madrid – Spain) – Instituto Madrileño de Investigación y Desarrollo Rural, Agrario y Alimentario v JN
(Case C-726/19) 1
(Reference for a preliminary ruling – Social policy – Directive 1999/70/EC – Framework agreement on fixed-term work concluded by ETUC, UNICE and CEEP – Clause 5 – Applicability – Concept of ‘successive fixed-term employment contracts or relationships’ – Fixed-term employment contracts in the public sector – Measures to prevent and penalise the misuse of successive fixed-term employment contracts or relationships – Concept of ‘objective reasons’ justifying such contracts – Equivalent legal measures – Obligation to interpret national law in conformity with EU law – Economic crisis)
Language of the case: Spanish
Referring court
Tribunal Superior de Justicia de Madrid
Parties to the main proceedings
Appellant: Instituto Madrileño de Investigación y Desarrollo Rural, Agrario y Alimentario
Respondent: JN
Operative part of the judgment
Clause 5(1) of the framework agreement on fixed-term work concluded on 18 March 1999 which is annexed to Council Directive 1999/70/EC of 28 June 1999 concerning the framework agreement on fixed-term work concluded by ETUC, UNICE and CEEP, must be interpreted as precluding national legislation, as interpreted by the national court, which, first, allows, pending the completion of recruitment procedures initiated to fill definitively vacant posts of workers in the public sector, the renewal of fixed-term contracts, without specifying a precise time limit for the completion of those procedures, and, second, prohibits both the assimilation of those workers to ‘workers having non-permanent contracts of indefinite duration’ and the granting of compensation to those workers. It appears that that national legislation, subject to the checks which it is for the national court to carry out, does not include any measure to prevent and, where appropriate, to penalise the misuse of successive fixed-term contracts.
Clause 5(1) of the framework agreement on fixed-term work concluded on 18 March 1999 which is annexed to Directive 1999/70 must be interpreted as meaning that purely economic considerations, related to the economic crisis of 2008, cannot justify the absence, in national law, of any measure to prevent and penalise the use of successive fixed-term employment contracts.
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1 OJ C 432, 23.12.2019.