L 28336 Official Journal of the European Union 28.10.2008 DIRECTIVES DIRECTIVE 2008/94/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 22 October 2008 on the protection of employees in the event of the insolvency of their employer (Codified version) (Text with EEA relevance) THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 137(2) thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the Commission, Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee (1), After consultation of the Committee of the Regions, Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 251 of the Treaty (9, Whereas: Council Directive 80/987/EEC of 20 October 1980 on the protection of employees in the event of the insolvency of their employer (}) has been substantially amended several times (%). In the interests of clarity and rationality the said Directive should be codified. The Community Charter of Fundamental Social Rights for Workers adopted on 9 December 1989 states, in point 7, that the completion of the internal market must lead to an improvement in the living and working conditions of workers in the Community and () O] C 161, 13.7.2007, p. 75. (%) Opinion of the European Parliament of 19 June 2007 (O] C 146 E, 12.6.2008, p. 71) and Council Decision of 25 September 2008. ( () O] L 283, 28.10.1980, p. 23. ) () See Annex I, Parts A and B. ( that this improvement must cover, where necessary, the development of certain aspects of employment regu- lations such as procedures for collective redundancies and those regarding bankruptcies. It is necessary to provide for the protection of employees in the event of the insolvency of their employer and to ensure a minimum degree of protection, in particular in order to guarantee payment of their outstanding claims, while taking account of the need for balanced economic and social development in the Community. To this end, the Member States should establish a body which guar- antees payment of the outstanding claims of the employees concerned. In order to ensure equitable protection for the employees concerned, the state of insolvency should be defined in the light of the legislative trends in the Member States and that concept should also include insolvency proceedings other than liquidation. In this context, Member States should, in order to determine the liability of the guarantee institution, be able to lay down that where an insolvency situation results in several insolvency proceedings, the situation is to be treated as a single insolvency procedure. It should be ensured that the employees referred to in Council Directive 97/81/EC of 15 December 1997 concerning the Framework Agreement on part-time work concluded by UNICE, CEEP and the ETUC (%), Council Directive 1999/70/EC of 28 June 1999 concerning the framework agreement on fixed-term work concluded by the ETUC, UNICE and CEEP (°) and Council Directive 91/383/EEC of 25 June 1991 supple- menting the measures to encourage improvements in the safety and health at work of workers with a fixed- duration employment relationship or a temporary employment relationship (7) are not excluded from the scope of this Directive. L 14, 20.1.1998, p. 9. L 175, 10.7.1999, p. 43. L 206, 29.7.1991, p. 19.