Cassation: union permit used for other purposes may not justify dismissal (Newsletter Norme & Tributi n. 150 Camera di Commercio Italo-Germanica – Vittorio De Luca, Elena Cannone)

The Court, with ruling 6495 of 9/3/2021, as per art. 30 of Law No. 300/1970, confirmed union body members have the right to paid time off for meetings. Use for other purposes can justify dismissal. According to the Court, the abstract relevance for punishing the worker’s conduct requires real verification of its seriousness and consideration as just cause for termination. The assessment of proportion is assigned to a judge. In this case, the manager’s dismissal for just cause was disproportionate based on analysis of the alleged conduct and preliminary investigation results. The manager was charged with being arbitrarily absent from work, having carried out activities unrelated to the reason for time off. However, the worker had not attended any meeting, but had conducted activity related to his job. Therefore, according to the Court, the judges had rightly overturned the manager’s dismissal considering his disputed conduct to be punishable with a conservative penalty.