THE FACEBOOK FEED MUST NOT BE USED TO DEFAME THE COMPANY
13/05/2018
Court of Cassation, sez. Lavoro, sentence n. 10280/18; judgement of April 27, 2018
S.r.l. Elettronica Cortesi confronted an employee about some comments she posted on her Facebook feed, with which she expressed her disdain for the company (“I’ve had fucking enough of this shitty place and of the ownership). Specifying the name of her representative was irrelevant, as the addressee was easily identifiable. Following a statement of objection, the company gave her notice of her lawful dismissal for misconduct, as they believed she put in place a defamatory behavior which constituted a serious threat to the element of trust, a fundamental assumption in employment relationships. The court of Appeal considered the dismissal legitimate. The Court of Cassation, which was called to settle the controversy in a definite way, stated that “diffusing a defamatory message using Facebook incorporates an hypothesis of defamation, due to the potential capacity to reach out to an indeterminate number of people, as the interpersonal relation, especially with the medium used, becomes extended to an indeterminate number of members in order to maintain a constant socialization. This means that posting a comment on Facebook implements its advertising and diffusion, since the mean used is eligible for determining the circulation of the comment among a group of people with a consistent numerical strength. As a result of which, whenever the comment is offensive towards easily identifiable people, as in this present case, the behaviour incorporates elements of defamation and, as such, the content was correctly evaluated in terms of legitimate reason of termination, as suitable to sever the fiduciary bond in the working relationship”.
The fact that the employee was subject to stressful working situations, which moreover weren’t proven in the lawsuit, is completely irrelevant. The dismissal was considered definitively legitimate.
Court of Cassation, sez. Lavoro, sentence n. 10280/18; judgement of April 27, 2018
Tradotto da Laura Pettinato Devetachi
In Italy, employees were protected by art. 18 of act n. 300/1970 (usually called “employees statue”), until 2014: workers unjustly fired could sue their employer for being reinstated to their job and for damages (salaries from firing to reinstating). So, if the judge had declared unlawful dismissal, companies had to pay years of salary and social security contribution, even if they didn’t’ get any job performance by fired employees (Italian trials were really slow). From 2015, this won’t happen anymore. In case of unlawful dismissal, employers will only have to pay damages to workers. This compensation will be reasonable: from 4 to 24 months of salary (2 months per year of working). Employees won’t have the right to be reinstated to their job, except for specific situations. So, if he doesn’t appreciate the worker, the employer won’t be obliged to readmit him in his company (except for racial, political and religious discrimination). According to new acts, civil trials are faster, thanks to their computerization. Now payment orders can be issued in a few days. Before, it took several months. Besides, debtors that refuse payments are obliged to pay default interest of 9%. So they have no incentive to delay payments: this would be too expensive. Creditors can ask the court for an order to search in public records debtor’s goods and current accounts to be attached (now access to records is allowed only to specialized agencies) . This new procedural instrument allows to attack debtor's assets more easily. Creditors will be satisfied effectively and more quickly. In this section of the website, we are going to show all this brandnew rules.
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