SOCIAL SECURITY : COURT CLARIFIES RIGHTS OF EMPLOYEES ON OFFSHORE PLATFORMS.

National legislation based on the residence criterion to determine whether a person working on an offshore gas-drilling platform is eligible for a mandatory social security scheme is incompatible with EU law. Thus ruled the EU Court of Justice, on 17 January, clarifying for the first time the social law applicable to individuals employed on offshore platforms. Ruling on a question referred by the Amsterdam district court (Netherlands), it overturned Dutch legislation that excluded A. Salemink, a nurse and radiographer on an offshore platform, from incapacity benefits because he had moved his residence to Spain(1).

Under Dutch law, individuals who work outside the Netherlands are not considered employees unless they reside in the Netherlands and their employer has its place of business or is established in the Netherlands. The court points out that, under international law of the sea, the...