Court of Cassation: limited activities for the employee on sickness leave (Il Sole 24 ore, October 29, 2012, page 48)

Court of Cassation, with the sentence no. 16375/2012, stated the lawfulness of the dismissal of an employee who works, even just for one day, during sickness leave, though in our legislation a prohibition to work during this period, also in favor of a third party, does not exist. In fact, the possible dismissal is lawful when the behavior of the employee is in breach of the general rules of correctness and good faith and to the contractual obligations of diligence and faithfulness. These rules are broken in the case the carrying out of a different work activity by the employee on a sickness leave is enough to assume the inexistence of the sickness justifying the absence from the work place or in the case the activity can compromise or delay, even potentially, the recovery and the return of the employee to the work place.