Dismissal is legitimate if employer monitoring complies with company policies drawn up in accordance with the law (Norme & Tributi Plus Diritto de Il Sole 24 Ore, 11 November 2025 – Martina De Angeli, Alesia Hima)

In judgment no. 28365 of 27 October 2025, the Court of Cassation, Labour Section, upheld the legitimacy of the disciplinary dismissal imposed on an employee for the unlawful use of company IT tools. The Supreme Court confirmed the full legitimacy of the employer’s monitoring, as it was carried out in compliance with company policies properly communicated to employees.

The case at hand

The case originated from the summary dismissal imposed in 2021 by the company on an employee responsible for commercial management activities.

The disciplinary measure was based on findings, following IT audits, of repeated unauthorized access to company systems and the transmission to external parties of a large number of files containing clients’ sensitive data.

The employee challenged the dismissal, disputing the legitimacy of the monitoring and claiming that the company laptop subject to the checks was his personal property at the time the data were extracted, and that the inspection activities were in violation of privacy laws and Article 4 of the Workers’ Statute.

The Court of Appeal of Campobasso rejected the appeal, considering the dismissal fully legitimate. The company had demonstrated that the computer was still company property at the time of the checks and that the monitoring had been carried out in compliance with the internal policy, previously communicated to employees, which clearly outlined the purposes, methods, and limits of IT monitoring, as well as the possibility of using the collected data for disciplinary purposes in case of violations.

Read the full version published on Norme & Tributi Plus Diritto de Il Sole 24 ore.