Dismissal for just cause of an employee who copies company data even if they are not password-protected is lawful

The Court of Cassation, in its judgement No. 25147 dated 24 October 2017, deemed lawful the dismissal for just cause ordered to an employee who downloaded company data (not password-protected) on a personal pen driver, without disclosing them to third parties. According to the Court, indeed the fact that the employee had not disclosed the data unlawfully stolen from the company servers, but only saved them on a pen drive, was not sufficient to determine the unlawfulness of the dismissing measure issued without notice on the basis of National Collective Bargaining Agreement (CCNL) of the sector. This, because that conduct still constituted a violation of the obligations of due diligence and loyalty referred to in Article 2105 of the Civil Code. The Court of Cassation, in the course of the argument as a basis of the decision, also pointed out that even the failure to protect company data with passwords would have not affected the lawfulness of the employer dismissal. This because the nature of the data, which was obviously confidential, remains such even if access to employees is free nor this can in any way legitimize the conduct of the employee. Basically, the employee must not perform activities contrary to the interests of the employer, meaning those that, although not currently causing damage, have the potential to do harm.