CJEU: Case C-17/19, Bouygues travaux publics, Elco construct Bucarest, Welbond armatures, 14 May 2020

The Court of Justice has issued a ruling in a French case involving the construction group Bouygues, which is in charge of construction work on a nuclear power plant, where a chain of subcontractors has been sending posted workers to the site (CJEU, 14 May 2020, case C‑17/19, Bouygues). These subcontractors and the limited partnership set up to carry out the site work, i.e. the Bouygues group, were accused of not making the necessary declarations prior to engaging workers who were being posted to the site. This is an obligation under French law, which enables a check to be made that employees have been properly declared to the French social security scheme, and that various employment law-related obligations have been met. Where a posted worker already has an A1 Certificate, proving that he/she belongs to the social security scheme in his/her home country, does the employer also have to submit a declaration prior to engaging workers? The Court of Justice invites the national court to check the nature of the declaration required at the time of engaging workers: whether its sole purpose is to ensure that the workers concerned are affiliated to the French social security scheme, in which case A1 Certificates “issued by the issuing institution would, in principle, preclude such an obligation”. “Alternatively, whether the purpose of that obligation is also, even in part, to protect the effectiveness of checks made by the competent national authorities in order to ensure compliance with conditions of employment and working conditions imposed by employment law” (editor’s note: this is indeed the case), in which case these A1 Certificates “would have no effect on that obligation” as they are binding on the courts or tribunals of the host Member State “solely in the area of social security”.