{"id":24299,"date":"2020-02-03T09:01:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-03T08:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.delucapartners.it\/news\/the-repechage-obligation-also-exists-in-the-event-of-collective-redundancy-and-trade-union-agreement\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T16:15:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T15:15:06","slug":"the-repechage-obligation-also-exists-in-the-event-of-collective-redundancy-and-trade-union-agreement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.delucapartners.it\/en\/insights\/case-law-en\/the-repechage-obligation-also-exists-in-the-event-of-collective-redundancy-and-trade-union-agreement\/","title":{"rendered":"The rep\u00eachage obligation also exists in the event of collective redundancy and trade union agreement"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Court of Cassation, with order no. 118 of 7 January 2020<\/strong>, on the subject of collective redundancy, stated, recalling its own consolidated case law, that the choice of workers to be dismissed cannot fall exclusively on the personnel assigned to the department or sector eliminated or reduced. There must, in fact, be objective business needs underlying the choice of those subjected to the restructuring project. And the burden of proof of the existence of such reasons lies with the employer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Facts of the case<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both\nthe Judge at first instance and the Court of Appeal had declared unlawful the\ndismissal of a worker in the context of a collective redundancy procedure,\ndeclaring the employment relationship terminated and ordering his former\nemployer to pay twenty months’ salary as compensation, in addition to the\nreimbursement of legal costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As\nthe basis of the decision, the Court of Appeal found that the trade union\nagreement signed made it possible to consider that the reasons put forward by\nthe company to demonstrate the abolition of the department to which the worker\nwas exclusively assigned existed. However, this agreement could not be regarded\nas sufficient to remedy the obligation not to limit the scope of choice to the\ndepartment abolished. According to the District Court, the company should have\ncompared the worker with the workers employed in the other departments. This\nwas because he had shown that he had a number of skills similar to the workers\nin question (rep\u00eachage <\/em>rule) and he was physically fit to be compared\nwith them. Finally, in the Court’s view, the compensation under Article 18 of\nLaw 300\/1970 provided for following the termination of the relationship did not\nrequire the deduction of either the aliunde\nperceptum<\/em> [refers to the event in which the employee has earnings from\nother employment undertaken in the meantime] or the aliunde percipiendum<\/em> [refers to the event in which the employee has\nnot sought other employment in the meantime]. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nunsuccessful company appealed to the Court of Cassation against the decision of\nthe Court of Appeal with only one ground of appeal. The applicant resisted with\na counter-appeal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The decision of the Court of Cassation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By\nits ground for appeal, the company argued that (i) in a collective redundancy\nprocedure the rep\u00eachage<\/em> obligation does not apply and (ii) in the\npresence of a trade union agreement, there is no need for comparison with\ndepartments other than the one to be abolished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nCourt of Cassation, citing its own precedent, first of all stated that “in\nthe matter of collective redundancy for reduction of staff, where the\ncompany restructuring project relates exclusively to a production unit or a\nspecific sector of the company, the pool of workers concerned may be limited to\nthose employed in a given department or sector only on the basis of objective\ncompany requirements<\/strong>, in relation to the company restructuring project, and\nit is the burden of the employer to prove the fact that it determines the\nobjective limitation of those requirements and to justify the narrowest\npossible space in which the choice was made<\/strong>; with the consequence that the\nchoice of workers cannot be considered lawful only because they are employed in\nthe operational department abolished or reduced, neglecting the possession of\nprofessionalism equivalent to that of employees in other organizational units<\/strong>“<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nthe present case, in the Court’s view, it was the company’s obligation – since\nthe employee had demonstrated that he possessed many professional skills\nacquired during the course of the employment relationship – to compare him with\nthe employees of the other departments remaining in operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\nsaid, the Court of Cassation, again recalling its own precedent, has observed\nthat in the matter of collective redundancies, the employer and trade unions\ncan sign an agreement to regulate the placement of redundant workers in\nmobility also by establishing conditions different from the statutory ones,\nprovided that the requirements of objectivity and rationality are respected.\nThis is because the agreement fulfils a function duly delegated by law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However,\nin the present case, according to the Court of Cassation, the agreement reached\nbetween the parties did not comply with those requirements, because in\nproviding for the redundancy of the worker it did not take into account his\ndocumented professionalism and the positions he could have occupied. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nview of all the above, the Court of Cassation rejected the appeal and ordered\nthe Company to pay the costs of the proceedings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Court of Cassation, with order no. 118 of 7 January 2020, on the subject of collective redundancy, stated, recalling its own consolidated case law, that the choice of workers to be dismissed cannot fall exclusively on the personnel assigned to the department or sector eliminated or reduced. There must, in fact, be objective business […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[167,177,190],"tags":[1121,1122,1123],"class_list":{"0":"post-24299","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-case-law","7":"category-insights","9":"tag-accordo-sindacale-en","10":"tag-licenziamento-collettivo-en","11":"tag-repechage-en"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe rep\u00eachage obligation also exists in the event of collective redundancy and trade union agreement - De Luca & Partners<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.delucapartners.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24299\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The rep\u00eachage obligation also exists in the event of collective redundancy and trade union agreement - De Luca & Partners\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Court of Cassation, with order no. 118 of 7 January 2020, on the subject of collective redundancy, stated, recalling its own consolidated case law, that the choice of workers to be dismissed cannot fall exclusively on the personnel assigned to the department or sector eliminated or reduced. 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