Dismissal due to the suppression of a post through a different division of duties is lawful

In its decision no. 14871 of 15 June 2017, the Court of Cassation referred to its own case-law orientation and confirmed that, within the sphere of a dismissal due to objective just cause, in relation to the suppression of a post, it is not necessary for all the duties previously assigned to the dismissed employee to be suppressed, but that they may be differently divided up and assigned according to the “entrepreneur’s undeniable right of choice”. This was correct, in the opinion of the Court of Cassation, precisely because the notion of dismissal for objective just cause also includes the case of a company’s reorganisation aimed at its more economical management as decided by the entrepreneur “not simply to increase its profits but also in order to deal with unfavourable conditions (that may not be merely of a contingent nature) that may have a decisive effect on normal production, thus creating the actual need to reduce costs”. Basically, the Court cannot criticise the company’s management choices as its sole power is to control the effective existence of the motive leading to the dismissal decision, i.e. the actual effectiveness and non-spurious nature of the proposed reorganisation.