Transfer of the employer’s operation

(Decision of the Supreme Court from 14 July 2016, file no. 21 Cdo 3712/2015) 

In this case the lessee – running a coffee shop – was served by a termination notice from the lease of the respective premises. He vacated the premises and handed them over to another coffee shop operator. Subsequently, an employee of the former lessee of the premises demanded against the former coffee shop operator a declaration that his employment relationship still lasted. However, the former coffee shop operator referred him to the new lessee of the premises claiming that the rights and obligations of the employer were transferred to the new lessee.

The Supreme Court decides that even in this case the transfer of employees according to Sec. 338 of the Labor Code was realized. The former and the new lessee were not anyhow connected in this case (personally, nor in property), nor there were any other agreement concluded between them. Still, according to the Supreme Court, in this case the termination notice served to the lessee (the former employer) and the subsequent conclusion of the new lease agreement to the very same premises with the new lessee who continuous in the similar business activity, establish together a legal act by which the transfer of the employer’s operation (role) occurs.