The RSU may decide how to allocate paid leave but not to concentrate it all on one member (Newsletter Norme & Tributi n. 160 Camera di Commercio Italo-Germanica – Vittorio De Luca, Elena Cannone)

By decision 9/2022, the Court of Siena declared that the employer’s conduct prohibiting the centralisation of union leaves under the collective agreement (CCNL) predominantly or exclusively in favour of one or more members of a labour organisation is not anti-union if this causes intolerable absence from work. The Court ruled that freedom of association does not exempt a union from the general duties of political, economic and social solidarity. Like any other person, an LO must perform contracts in good faith, and the right to use union leaves – granted by the CCNL through a ‘sum of hours’, without stipulating anything about the manner of such use – meets precisely this limit of good faith. The conduct of the union which, by concentrating all or part of the leaves in favour of one or more members, causes them not to carry out their work obligations for a considerable period of time, cannot be considered in conformity with the principles of loyalty and fairness. In the Court’s view, the employer’s conduct is, on the other hand, anti-union when it does not allow the members of the RSU to enjoy equal parts of the leave in relation to the number of hours allocated