Dismissal ordered by e-mail is lawful

The Court of Cassation, with judgement No. 29753/2017, ruled on the lawfulness of a dismissal issued by e-mail. In particular, the Court, through a literal interpretation of the provision referred to in Law 604/66, wished to clarify that “the requirement of written notice of dismissal must be deemed fulfilled, in the absence of specific procedures, with any method that involves the submittal to the recipient of the written document in its material form“. Dismissal is, in fact, a unilateral act that produces its effects when it becomes known to the recipient. In the specific case, it was proven that the employee received the notification and then that he/she forwarded it to his/her colleagues, informing them that he/she would no longer work at the company and, as a result, proving that he/she had actually received the message. This judgement is part of a series of rulings that recently are more and more often recognizing the validity of notifications submitted without digital signature and outside the Certified Email circuits, thus confirming an order of the Court of Catania dated 27 June 2017 that in a similar case deemed lawful a dismissal ordered via Whatsapp.