In ruling no. 95/2022, the Court of Vicenza held that the acceptance of a collective agreement may be tacit or by conduct, i.e., by actually applying its terms. Once a party can be said to have accepted the agreement, this is binding on such party. In the case at issue, three labour organisations had sued two companies, arguing that they had applied the UNIC CBA until September 2021, and its effective period had been extended to June 30, 2023. In the view of these organisations, the fact that the two companies stopped using the CBA and replaced it with another one from October 2021 constituted anti-union behaviour. According to the Court, evidence emerged during the proceedings that one of the companies had applied the CCNL by conduct, thus accepting the clause under which “the agreement as a whole shall be understood to be renewed year by year unless terminated six months before its expiration, by a registered letter with return receipt. If terminated, it shall remain force until replaced with the subsequent one”. Accordingly, in the Court’s view, the company’s intent to stop applying the CBA can only produce effects from 30 June 2023, so that the same remains in full effect until that date.
