Dismissal due to the use of a company car for private purpose is out of proportion

In Judgment no. 1377 lodged on 19 January 2018, the Court of Cassation has stated – in regard to an employment contract stipulated before the entry into force of Legislative Decree no. 23/2015 (so-called Jobs Act) – that a dismissal for just cause imposed on a worker who systematically used the company car, assigned to him only for reasons of his office, to travel from home to work and to go to lunch, is disproportionate. The Supreme Court relies on the assumption that in order to allow dismissal for just cause, a worker must have irremediably violated the fiduciary relationship that binds him to the employer, engaging in a conduct that is motivated by an abusive intent, in stark contrast to corporate rules. An essential element of this – according to the Court – is the proportionality of the behaviour at hand and the punishment imposed on the worker. Now, in the case at hand, in the court’s opinion, the conduct of the worker, even if unlawful, is certainly to be considered less serious, given that the use of a company car did not produce any negative consequences for the employer company, nor has it violated the company rules and the “values of the workers’ community”. In considering the dismissal out of proportion, the Court, therefore, concluded that the worker must be reinstated in his original job.