The relative nature of the requirement of immediacy in disciplinary proceedings

The Court of Cassation, with judgement No. 7424 dated 26 March 2018 has once again dealt with the matter of immediacy of disciplinary dispute and the timeliness of the penalty then adopted. In this specific case, the employer had initiated against the employee disciplinary proceedings – which ended with a dismissal for just cause – only months after the occurrence of the alleged facts. The Court of Cassation, in reviewing the case, reiterated that the principle of immediacy must be understood in a relative sense, since in practical terms it must be compatible with a longer or shorter period of time, “when the verification and assessment of the facts calls for more time or when the complexity of the organisational structure of the company may delay the termination decision”. In addition, the Supreme Court reminded how the time frame between the facts and the dispute, for the purposes of assessing the immediacy of the dismissal, must start from the moment in which the employer has become aware of the disputed situation and not from the abstract perception or knowledge of the facts. Essentially, the concept of immediacy must be assessed in relation to the complexity of the employer’s corporate organisation.