Collective dismissals are governed by Law 223/91, which excludes from its application Executives (“Dirigenti” in the Italian parlance), according to art. 4 par. 9. Not only the legislator, but case-law and legal doctrine as well considered that collective dismissals discipline is not applicable to Executives, due to the peculiarity of the employment relationship, based on a strong trustworthy bond between them and the employer and the not applicability of the restrictive dismissals rules provided for by Law 604/66. For these reasons, Italian legislator carried on excluding Executives from the application of the Law 223/91, even after the EU directive no. 98/59 regarding collective dismissals. This directive sets a common discipline for every EU countries in case of collective dismissals, stating that it is applicable to any subordinate employee, except for fixed-term employees, public administration employees and maritime crews. EU Court of Justice – judgment C-596/2012 of February 13, 2014 -, disregarding Italian thesis, stated that Italy broke the obligations set forth in articles 1 and 2 of the mentioned EU directive. This because of the mentioned exclusion of the Executives by Law 223/91. Consequently, in the consultation and information stage between employer and trade unions, Executives trade unions have to be involved as well.
