Dismissal is legal if a position has been eliminated and in the absence of job duties compatible with the employee’s physical limitations

The Labour Court of Lodi confirmed that it is legal to dismiss a worker due to the elimination of the department and tasks to which the worker was assigned, and impossibility to re-use the employee in other positions compatible with physical limitations reported by the designated Company Doctor and Public Health Service. In challenging the dismissal, the worker had in particular requested that the lack of a justified motive be verified, asking that the Company be sentenced to reinstate the worker pursuant to article 18 of Italian Law 300/1970, objecting to the retaliative nature of the dismissal and Company’s violation of the reinstatement obligation, listing a series of positions considered compatible with the prescribed limits related to repetitive movements and lifting of heavy loads.

Appearing in court, the Company defended the lack of a retaliative motive – since the job had been actually eliminated and had been done for a reorganisation aimed at containing fixed costs – offering proof of the impossibility of assigning the worker to the duties stated in the appeal.

Granting the defence submitted for the Company, the Court rejected the appeal, finding the lack of a retaliative motive claimed by the worker and demonstrated, based on preliminary investigation, the impossibility of reusing the worker in other job duties. With this ruling, the Court also sentenced the plaintiff to pay the court costs.