Legitimate dismissal for false attendance reporting and misuse of access system data (Camera di Commercio Francese in Italia – Vittorio De Luca, Silvia Zulato)

With Order No. 7985 of 31 March 2026, the Italian Supreme Court – Labour Section – confirmed the lawfulness of a dismissal for just cause imposed on an employee for irregularities in attendance recording, clarifying the limits on the use, for disciplinary purposes, of data collected through company access and attendance tracking systems.

In the case examined, the employee had been dismissed for, on several occasions between January and October 2019, failing to clock in using his badge or manually entering into the company application arrival and departure times that did not correspond to the data recorded by the systems monitoring access to the company premises.

The employee challenged the dismissal, arguing, among other things, that the data acquired by the employer through the access monitoring systems could not be used for disciplinary purposes because they allegedly violated the prohibition on remote monitoring of employees. However, both the Trial Court and the Court of Appeal considered the dismissal lawful, finding that the alleged conduct had occurred and that the disciplinary sanction of dismissal was proportionate.

The Italian Supreme Court dismissed the employee’s appeal, reiterating that access and attendance recording systems fall within the scope of Article 4(2) of the Italian Workers’ Statute and, therefore, the data collected through such systems may be used for all purposes connected with the employment relationship, including disciplinary purposes, provided that the employee has been adequately informed about the methods of use of the tools and the performance of the checks, and that personal data protection legislation is complied with.

The Court further clarified that this form of monitoring cannot be regarded as prohibited remote surveillance, since it concerns the recording of access and attendance rather than the direct and continuous monitoring of work performance. Even where the analysis of the data is carried out following suspicions of misconduct, the data remain admissible because they were lawfully collected through work-related tools.

In the present case, the information obligation was also deemed to have been fulfilled, since the employer had adopted a company policy on access monitoring, which had been brought to the employees’ attention through publication on the company intranet and through dedicated corporate communications.

In conclusion, the ruling confirms that false attendance reporting, carried out by failing to clock in or by entering inaccurate data, constitutes particularly serious misconduct capable of justifying dismissal for just cause, and that data collected through access and attendance recording systems may lawfully be used for disciplinary purposes, provided that the conditions established by law are complied with.