Employees who work a daily shift exceeding 6 hours, must be granted a substitute meal voucher if they are unable to use the canteen service or if, due to their job, they are not able to take a break.

This principle expressed by the Court of Cassation, which, with ruling no. 5547 of 1 March 2021, returned to review the meal voucher issue, clarified an unclear aspect of collective bargaining of the Healthcare segment, forming an important precedent for healthcare companies that do not grant shift workers a break, to ensure no interruption of service.

The case the Court was asked to rule on is related to a hospital employee who worked a 7 hour afternoon shift (from 1:00 pm to 8:00 pm) and an 11 hour night shift (from 8:00 pm to 7:00 am). The employee could not use the canteen service offered by the hospital since the job he performed could not be suspended and there was no evening canteen service offered.

The Court and Appeals Court of Messina granted the employee’s appeal acknowledging his right to be granted meal vouchers for each shift exceeding 6 hours, as well as compensation for damages for having paid for the daily meal at his own expense.

Specifically, according to the regional Court the right to a meal voucher is based on the provisions of art. 29, paragraph 2, supplementary collective contract of the Healthcare segment and art. 8 of Legislative Decree 66/2003 which states that the right to canteen service must be identified with the right to a break and that, therefore, must be granted to all employees who work daily hours exceeding 6 hours.

The hospital appealed to Cassation based on a single point of law, that the Court of Appeals, with the challenged ruling, had erroneously represented the right to a break with the right to canteen service. The hospital, in particular, argues, on one hand, that the criterion for granting the right to canteen service is the impossibility to eat outside the workplace in relation to the organisation of the working hours and, on the other that art. 8 of Legislative Decree no. 66/2003 only governs the right to a break and not also the right to canteen service, since de facto it is only possible to eat a meal during the break.

Continue reading the full version published in Norme & Tributi Plus Diritto of Il Sole 24 Ore.