Dismissal is unlawful if subcontracting takes place after two years

The Court of Cassation, with judgement No. 25649 dated 27 October 2017, ruled as unlawful, persecutory and abusive, the dismissal ordered to an employee “for organisational reasons”, due to the decision to subcontract out the IT system that the employee was in charge of handling. The employee, in bringing to court the dismissal, proved that the IT system in truth had been used within the company up to almost two years after his dismissal. Thus, proving that the urgently needed reorganisation of the service brought forth as the reason for his dismissal was null and void. In fact, on the matter, the Court of Cassation reconfirmed the following law principle: “the justified objective reason as per article 3 of the Law No. 604 dated 1966 must be assessed on the basis of factual and truly existing elements at the time of notification of the dismissal, and not on future and potential circumstances”. Moreover, in the specific case, it emerged that the manger of the IT system had, a month before the dismissal, a meeting with the CEO of the Company during which he had been told that he would be dismissed since “no one could stand him anymore at the company”. Therefore, the employer had been ordered to reintegrate the employee in his job position, in addition to pay a general damage reimbursement for the unlawful, persecutory and abusive dismissal.