The European Court of Justice is trying to create a single, generally valid concept of worker through the rich jurisprudence, as in comprehensive EU legislation it does not yet exist, taking as basis the fundamental freedom of free movement of persons, or more specifically the free movement of workers, which is defined in Article 45 TFEU. From that article and EU secondary legislation a number of rights linked to the status of a worker, is deriving. Among them, in the first place, there is the abolition of any discrimination based on nationality between workers of the Member States. Only in this way the successful realization of the right of free movement of workers, can be ensured. The freedom of free movement of workers is not only an economic category, but also a personal category, so the rights deriving from this freedom are not belonging not only to workers, but also to family members and people who depend on the workers. In addition, with the Maastricht contract and the introduction of a citizenship of the Union, the economic concept of free movement of persons (economically active individuals) has been also extended to economically inactive individuals.
The European Court of Justice through jurisprudence points out that the term “worker” has an universal Community meaning, therefore Member States shall not establish this term by themselves, as this may result in fading protection afforded by EU law, which is provided to certain categories of persons. This way the European Court of Justice reserves oneself the exclusive right to create the term worker. There is an important question, if the ECJ with this concept leaves the door open for the interpretation of the definition of a worker, so that it could adapt to the changing social, economic and political climate in the EU, and whether this offers individuals sufficient legal protection.
In creating the definition of worker the ECJ helps by judging of the different concepts (payment for work, the purpose of employment, effective and genuine work, etc.) and Lawrie-Blum test, from which derived the criteria for the definition of worker.
|