Case number and/or case name
BAG, 22.10.2015 – 2 AZR 720/14
Details of the court
Germany, Third Instance
Articles referred to by the court
Date of the judgement
21 October 2015
CJEU's case law cited by the court
Summary
The plaintiff is employed by the defendant, an Italian company which has a subsidiary in Germany. The employment contract is written in German and includes a choice of law in favor of Italian law. The employee pays social insurance in Italy and works on ships that have an Italian flag. After a private accident he is severely handicapped and the defendant terminates the employment contract. The parties argue about the need to prior inform the integration board.
The court comes to the result that Italian law is applicable to the employment contract and furthermore applicable to the dismissal. The Italian law is the law of the closest link in general as a habitual work place could not be determined clearly. The Rome I Regulation is not applicable to the case according to Art. 28 but the application of Art. 3, 8, 9 would not have achieved different results than the application of Art. 27 ff EGBGB.
In sum, the court does not technically apply Rome I but refers to it in order to stress the result achieved under national PIL with regard to the Regulation that was going to be applied in the future.