Stabilità del lavoro e tutela della concorrenza. Le vicende circolatorie dell’impresa alla luce del diritto comunitario

The essay analyses social protection clauses laid down in collective agreements and in legislation related to cases in which one service provider took over the performance of a contract from another: such clauses usually imposed on the new provider to re-employ the staff of the previous supplier. In particular the author makes the example of measures to protect the rights of workers contained in Italian Legislative Decree 18/99 (applying Directive 96/67/EC on access to the groundhandling market at Community airports), which has been declared by the ECJ incompatible with Directive 96/67/EC, because they are liable to distort competition on the market for airport services. The author underlines the distinction between a “transfer of an undertaking” and a “transfer of activity” as interpreted by the ECJ and examines service contracts series to which Directive 2001/23 has to be applicable, in consideration of the nature of the transaction concerned.