No repêchage obligation of collective dismissals

The Court of Appeals of Milan, with judgement No. 131/2017, in confirming the first-degree ruling, stated that in collective dismissals the employer does not have any repêchage obligations. This because the latter is an element that applies to dismissals for justified objective reasons for which the employer has the obligation to prove of having assessed the possibility to re-assign the worker, even to lower level tasks, in order to avoid the termination of the work relationship. Therefore, in the opinion of the Court of Appeals, said element does not apply in the case of possible commitment undertaken by the employer at the time of Trade Union agreement signed as part of a collective dismissal procedure (as in the specific case), with the intent of supporting the relocation of the employees involved. This employer’s commitment, according to the Court of Appeals, has a «merely contractual nature» and breaching it does not represent a violation of the criteria of choice or of the procedure itself. It only represents a contractual obligation, whose breach, if occurring, cannot be subjected to the protections established by article 18, Law 300/1970, which at the most could lead to a claim for damages (not submitted in the case under review).