In the article, Peter elaborates on the general principles of safeguarding rights as a whole and safeguarding the length of service especially in the event of a transfer of undertaking. In this regard, he refers extensively to the case-law of the Court of Justice of the European Union and applies them to the calculation of the termination notice period when a transfer of undertaking under CBA No. 32bis has taken place.
He also discusses to what extent are parties able to proceed to alter the employment contract. He pays particular attention in the article to the term “length of service” in the context of calculating the notice period. More in particular, he explains that an acquisition in the context of CBA No. 32bis of the National Labour Council cannot be equated with an allocation of a conventional length of service when calculating the notice period.
In short: When a worker, who was hired before 1 January 2014, is taken over after 1 January 2014, the notice period must be calculated in two steps in accordance with the Unified Status Act. The fact whether or not the worker has signed a new employment contract subsequent to the transfer is not relevant. To calculate the notice period, the original start date of employment at the transferor must be taken into consideration. The application of the case-law of the Court of Justice of the EU does not imply that only the length of service completed at the transferor must be added to the length of service that was completed at the transferee.
