Adequate pay and applicable collective agreement: Supreme Court ruling

Remuneration and benefits
Adequate pay and collective agreement: the actual sector of the contract matters
Supreme Court (Cassation), Labour Section

A worker-member of a cooperative, engaged in hanging chickens and turkeys for a contracting company in the agri-food sector, challenged the remuneration received, arguing that the company had applied a collective agreement (freight transport and logistics) inconsistent with the duties performed and contrary to the constitutional principle of proportionate and sufficient pay. The Court of Appeal dismissed the claim, considering the application of the logistics sector agreement lawful.

The Supreme Court upheld the appeal, stating that remuneration must be assessed in relation to the quality and quantity of the work actually performed, with reference to the collective agreement of the economic sector to which the activity truly belongs. In the present case, hanging activities — closely connected to the slaughtering process and therefore to food processing — do not fall within the logistics sector but within the agri-food sector.

Accordingly, for the purposes of verifying compliance with Article 36 of the Constitution and Article 3 of Law No. 142/2001, the judge must compare the treatments provided for by the applied collective agreement and by the relevant sector agreement to determine whether pay is actually adequate. The Court also reiterated that the burden of proving compliance with constitutional principles rests with the employer, not the worker, and that limitation periods for wage claims run only from termination of the employment relationship, including for cooperative members.