Abstract

According to the Portuguese Supreme Court of Justice there is no transfer of establishment when a company ceases to provide surveillance and security services to a particular client, following the contracting (by the client) of such services to another company, without any employee or any other resources, skills or organisational instruments having been transferred to the new services provider, which could constitute an ‘economic unit’.
For this assessment, the Supreme Court has taken into consideration the ruling issued by the Court of Justice of the European Union (‘CJEU’) in Case C-675/21, Strong Charon and the enlightenments about the interpretation of Council Directive 2001/23/EC concerning the safeguarding of employees’ rights in the event of transfers of undertakings, businesses or parts of undertakings or businesses.