CJEU: withdrawals from GEBF can be limited in time and amount
Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in the case of Virginie Marie Gabrielle Guigo v Fond ‘Garantirani vzemania na rabotnitsite i sluzhitelite’ (C-338/17) resolved issues related to the possibility of limiting the time and amount of disbursement of funds from the Guaranteed Employee Benefits Fund (GEBF).
In the judgment of 25 July 2018. The CJEU considered that, according to the second paragraph of Article 3 of Directive 2008/94, “EU law confers on Member States the right to limit the liability for payments from the Guarantee Fund by setting a reference or guarantee period or ceilings for payments”.
The Polish legislation on GEBF complies with EU law.
According to the Employee Benefits Protection Act, the employee’s claims shall, in principle, be satisfied for a period of no more than three months immediately prior to the date on which the employer’s insolvency occurred. Moreover, if the employment relationship was terminated within 12 months prior to the employer’s insolvency, the employee may claim benefits for a period not longer than 3 months prior to the termination of the employment relationship.
In addition, special attention should be paid to the fact that in most cases the total amount of benefits for the period of 1 month may not exceed the average monthly remuneration from the previous quarter.
