Under a shareholder’s agreement one of the shareholders was to work at the company and receive a certain salary but received a lower salary due to the cash flow status of the company. Dues to a shareholders dispute the employment was ceased and the shareholder sued the salary differences from the company and from the other shareholders.
The Labor Court held that a shareholder or a director can also be deemed an employee of the company and this was the case here where the shareholder acted in fact as a manager in the company. However, there is no employment right of claim against the other shareholder and it exists only against the company because a shareholders’ agreement setting that a shareholder will work for the company does not create a personal employment right of claim against the other shareholders.
As to the salary, when the salary of an employee is reduced and the employee continues working this may be deemed an agreement to the reduction. Here the employee worked six years in the lower salary and thus cannot now claim the differences.