Busto Arsizio Court: irregular use of a part-time contract implies the transformation thereof

With its judgement no. 224 dated 15 June 2016, Busto Arsizio Court held that the intention of the parties to change the employment relationship from part time to full time is implied, if the employee is constantly asked to work a number of working hours equal to or more than those worked by his or her colleagues on a full-time contract. In the case in question, the court pointed out that in order to reconstruct the intention of the parties, it is not what the same set forth in a written agreement that is important, but the way the work is actually carried out. Therefore, if a worker on a part time contract is prepared to work a full working day and the employer expresses its need to receive and then receives such services, the relationship necessarily becomes a full-time relationship due to conclusive facts. Substance, therefore, supersedes form which, in some cases, is an instrument that legitimises the illegal use of provisions of the law.