| Abstract [eng] |
The master's thesis examines the importance of the preliminary ruling of the European Court of Justice and the specific preliminary rulings hand down by this Court in the areas of posting of workers, discrimination, fixed-term employment contracts and temporary agency work between 2015 and 2020 inclusively. This paper reveals that a preliminary ruling is a necessary tool for the uniform interpretation and application of European Union law. Given the abstract nature of European Union law, in the absence of the preliminary ruling, the Member States of the European Union could interpret and apply European Union law in completely different ways, imposing different rights and obligations on entities located in different Member States, which would distort the aims and purposes of European Union law. In addition to the importance of the preliminary rulings, the paper clarifies that the European Court of Justice is further developing its case-law on the importance of sufficient connection between the functions performed by the employee and the territory of the host country for the purpose of determining posting. One of the decisions revealed that employees in all sectors could be considered as posted, unless otherwise stated in the Posting of Workers Directive. In the field of employment discrimination, it has been revealed that the Member States of the European Union may have types of employment contracts which can be concluded only with employees of certain age, provided that such a measure is proportionate to the objective pursued, e.g. increasing youth employment. In the field of fixed-term employment contracts, the European Court of Justice has given high priority to the stability of employment relationships, clarifying that the conclusion of successive fixed-term employment contracts with employees that perform permanent nature of work in certain sectors is prohibited only on the basis of such practices. Finally, in the field of temporary agency work, it has been clarified that the status of a temporary-work agency depends on the functions performed by such a person and not on its legal form. |
