EUPillar LAG Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, 19.3.2014

Summary

The parties argued about payment claims resulting from an employment contract. The claimant works on a cruise ship; the defendant is his employer. The employee – referring to a particular Italian law – claims for payment concerning a period of time where he cared for one of his ill family members. The court held that Italian law applied to the case pursuant to Art 8 (1), 3 (1) Rome I Regulation. The court stated that the parties in the employment contract had effectively agreed on a choice of law in favour of Italian substantive law. It further found that facts leading to restrictions imposed by Art 8 (1) sentence 2 Rome I were to be submitted by the claimant. The claimant in that case needed to explain which law would have applied to the case in case of a lacking choice of law. This – according to the court – in the present constellation was necessary as the habitual workplace could not be determined clearly regarding employees on ships.