Loss of amenity and demotion reimbursable even based on simple presumptions and common experience (Il Quotidiano del Lavoro, 17 January 2018 – Alberto De Luca, Antonella Iacobellis)

The Court of Cassation with judgement No. 82 dated 4 January, 2018, in addressing a claim for damages due to a demotion brought before the court by a part-time employee, stated that the loss of enjoyment of life – to be understood, as any prejudice, not to be merely emotional and inner, but objectively verifiable, caused by an infringement of the individual’s non-economic sphere, taking form in the disruption of her habits and relational balance, forcing her to make different life choices in terms of expression and manifestation of her personality towards the world – must be proven before the court by the employee using all the means made available by law, among which the one that takes on major importance is the evidence by presumptions. In the specific case, loss of enjoyment of life was deemed proven having acknowledged, among other things, the length of the discomfort suffered, the awareness within the workplace and elsewhere of the occurred demotion and the frustrated legitimate expectations for career growth.