SERVICES
Contracts and Outsourcing
Public Procurement: A Worker’s Notification Is Sufficient to Trigger Wage Protection
Court of Cassation, Labour Division
A worker employed under a public procurement contract brought proceedings to recover unpaid wages, seeking to hold the contracting public authority jointly liable. The Tribunal dismissed the claim against the public body and the Court of Appeal upheld that decision, finding that a prior communication sent by the worker was insufficient to activate the protection mechanism provided for in public contracts. The matter was then referred to the Supreme Court.
The Court of Cassation reversed the outcome of the proceedings, clarifying that the protection afforded to workers in public procurement contracts operates through an intervention mechanism that requires the contracting authority to act during the performance of the contract. For this purpose, it is not necessary for the worker to formulate a formally structured request, provide a detailed quantification of the claim, or expressly demand direct payment.
A notification of the wage default is sufficient to require the authority to carry out the necessary checks on the contractor and to adopt the measures provided for. A more restrictive interpretation of the provision would risk emptying the guarantee of its content and rendering it ineffective in precisely the situations for which it was introduced.