With ruling no. 19557 dated 30 September 2016, the Supreme Court stated that in the case of a foreign company with a branch office in Italy – in order to determine whether or not the size requisite for application of section 18 of Law no. 300/1970 in the event of unfair dismissal applies – only the workers employed in the national territory will be taken into account, and not the total number of employees in other countries where the Company operates. In the case in question, an employee of a Dutch company, who was dismissed for just cause, applied to the Court against its employer’s dismissal, with consequent application of the protection set forth by section 18 of the Workers’ Statute, alleging that both the workers employed in Italy and those employed in Holland in the employment base should be taken into account. Starting from two opposite positions adopted in case law, the Supreme Court reached the conclusion that even if the sub office or branch office of a foreign company does not have an independent legal status with respect to the parent-company from a corporate point of view, it is however subject to Italian law as though it had been incorporated in Italy in terms of the employment requisite. The reason for this is that section 18 of the Workers’ Statute indeed suggests territorial and national parameters. If the parent company has one or more branch offices in Italy, only the total number of employees of such branch offices should be calculated in terms of the applicability or otherwise of the actual stability regime.
