If all permanent staff receive benefit pay if they meet certain conditions, then temporary agency staff who meet these conditions are also entitled to benefit pay.
Equal pay for both groups is required for all types of remuneration and therefore also applies to variable pay.
If all permanent staff receive benefit pay if they meet certain conditions, then temporary agency staff who meet these conditions are also entitled to benefit pay.
Equal pay for both groups is required for all types of remuneration and therefore also applies to variable pay.
In March 2021, a group of companies made up of several entities recognizes a bonus called COVID 19 in the amount of 600, which was paid in the payroll of June 2021 to all employees who met certain requirements. On the other hand, the workers who in 2020 provided services for the group of companies under temporary agency contracts did not receive that bonus. The workers’ representatives brought an action for collective dispute seeking a declaration that the employees belonging to the temporary employment agency were entitled to receive that bonus under the same conditions as the employees belonging to the group of companies.
Therefore, the issue under debate consists of determining whether a remuneration concept recognized by a company in a unilateral decision with collective effects must be recognized for the workers of the temporary employment agency who provide their services in the same company.
The AN recalls that Article 11 of the ETT establishes as a general principle the equality between employees hired directly by the user company and workers hired through an ETT in the application of the essential terms and conditions of employment. It also points out that that provision has its origin in Directive 2008/104/EC, which defines core working and employment conditions as those laid down by legislative, regulatory and administrative provisions, collective agreements and other binding provisions of general application in force in user undertakings relating to working hours, overtime, breaks, rest periods, night work, paid holidays and public holidays and remuneration. It also points out that, as the case-law of the SC has stated, full equality in terms of working and employment conditions.
In the case in question, it is clear that the amount in question, fixed in a unilateral declaration by the employer with collective effects, affects remuneration and falls within the concept of binding provisions referred to in the directive, which means that the right of the workers placed at the disposal of the different companies to receive the COVID 19 bonus under the same conditions as those received by the workers directly employed by them must be recognized.
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