Conversion of the part-time contract into full-time due to concluding facts (Newsletter Norme & Tributi n. 176 Camera di Commercio Italo-Germanica – Vittorio De Luca, Irene Crisci)

With judgment no. 4350 of 19 February 2024, the Supreme Court of Cassation addressed the issue of conversion of the part-time employment contract into full-time in circumstances where the worker is constantly working extra hours and overtime. The employee brought a legal case to obtain the ascertainment of the conversion of the employment relationship to full-time in view of the company’s prolonged requests to work extra hours and overtime. The Judgment, in confirming the ruling rendered by the Court of Appeal of Cagliari, stated that if, in a part-time relationship, the employee works extra hours and overtime on a regular and continuous basis, despite the initial different manifestation of will of the parties, the original contractual provisions are novated and the part-time employment relationship is converted, due to conclusive facts, into a full-time relationship. Accordingly, the rules, including with regard to sanctions, envisaged for the part-time contract will no longer apply to the relationship, as that conversion operates not due to a legal source but by mutual will of the parties, which thus become the recipients of the rules envisaged for the full-time contract.