sou 1999 1 - Regeringen

SOU 1999:1 Summary 37
tions (through the wage guarantee). The choice should, instead, be determined
by other factors, such as the need to retain ongoing contracts, to be
quit of the current owners and the current management, and to avoid belowcost
sales, etc.
Concretely, the Committee proposes the following:
Wage guarantees should be capable of being utilised in conjunction with
reorganisations pursuant to the Business Reorganisation Act. In order that
this not result in increased costs in the event of a subsequent bankruptcy,
the debtor in the business reorganisation must repay any wage guarantee
payments provided or must provide security for the repayment before a
business reorganisation order can be revoked. However, a composition may
decrease the State’s claim for repayment of wages paid during the period
following notice of dismissal. Where the business reorganisation is converted
into a bankruptcy without any interruption, the business reorganisation
and the bankruptcy should be viewed as a single unit and the wage
guarantee payments provided in the business reorganisation are deducted
from that which can be received in the bankruptcy.
Wages for a maximum period of three months prior to the petition for
bankruptcy or business reorganisation will enjoy both rights of priority as
well as wage guarantees. In terms of time, this means a certain limitation,
since currently it is sufficient that the wage claim became due and payable
not later than three months prior to the filing of the petition for bankruptcy
(which means that the employees can wait up to four months before filing a
petition to place the employer in bankruptcy but nonetheless benefit from
the wage guarantees for all wages earned). However, certain provisions
should be made for cases where the employer could not be served with
process or where the wage claim was the subject of a dispute. Should an
attempt at business reorganisation have preceded a bankruptcy, then the
employee may choose, as today, to enjoy priority for wages during three
months prior to the petition for business reorganisation if that is more advantageous
than wages during three months prior to the petition for bankruptcy.
Thereafter, the right of priority and wage guarantee for wages exist up
until an order commencing the business reorganisation or bankruptcy plus
an additional week. It should not matter whether the employee worked for
the debtor in reorganisation or the bankruptcy estate during this brief transitional
period.
The rights of priority for the wage claims dealt with above seldom have
significance for the employee. In most cases, all assets are used up for
creditors with superior rights of priority and, therefore, the wage guarantee
is of central significance. However, the employee may have a level of wages
which results in the ceiling of the wage guarantee being surpassed. In such