Abstract

The legal analysis of the preliminary rulings of the European Court of Justice shows that Danish jurisdictions have incited important interpretations in some areas of Community labour law. This appears to be the case in particular with respect to the interpretation of Directive 77/ 187/EEC on the transfer of undertakings, where the Court, on the one hand, has extended its formal scope considerably, by applying the Directive even to leasing contracts regardless of whether or not the ownership of the undertaking is transferred, and on the other hand, has limited its material scope by excluding the applicability of the Directive where the employees have been made redundant before the transfer took place. The field of collective redundancies shows the important role of the Danish trade unions representing some of the workers concerned with regards to the clarification of the concept of establishment within the scope of Directive 75/129/EEC. Important case-law has finally been established in the field of equality law with reference to Directives 76/207/ EEC and 75/117/EEC, especially with respect to the burden of proof, which lies on the employer in case of payment systems lacking transparency.