Rome I

Article 8

Individual employment contracts

1. An individual employment contract shall be governed by the law chosen by the parties in accordance with Article 3. Such a choice of law may not, however, have the result of depriving the employee of the protection afforded to him by provisions that cannot be derogated from by agreement under the law that, in the absence of choice, would have been applicable pursuant to paragraphs 2, 3 and 4 of this Article.

2. To the extent that the law applicable to the individual employment contract has not been chosen by the parties, the contract shall be governed by the law of the country in which or, failing that, from which the employee habitually carries out his work in performance of the contract. The country where the work is habitually carried out shall not be deemed to have changed if he is temporarily employed in another country.

3. Where the law applicable cannot be determined pursuant to paragraph 2, the contract shall be governed by the law of the country where the place of business through which the employee was engaged is situated.

4. Where it appears from the circumstances as a whole that the contract is more closely connected with a country other than that indicated in paragraphs 2 or 3, the law of that other country shall apply.

Holdings

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C-152/2015 Jul 2021

DG and EH v SC Gruber Logistics SRL and Sindicatul Lucrătorilor din Transporturi v SC Samidani Trans SRL

If the parties to an individual employment contract choose the law governing that contract, and that law differs from the law that would apply under Article 8(2), 8(3) or 8(4) of Regulation No 593/2008, that latter law does not apply except for its "provisions that cannot be derogated from by agreement" within the meaning of Article 8(1); those provisions may include minimum-wage rules.

C-152/2015 Jul 2021

DG and EH v SC Gruber Logistics SRL and Sindicatul Lucrătorilor din Transporturi v SC Samidani Trans SRL

Parties to an individual employment contract remain free to choose the law applicable to that contract even where national labour law supplements the contractual terms under a national provision - provided that provision does not require the parties to choose national law.