DLP Insights

Last 20 February the draft of the legislative decree was examined concerning an overhaul of contracts which, among other things, entails the gradual elimination of project-based contracts, that, with certain exceptions, will no longer be stipulated and will be converted into normal employment contracts starting 1 January 2016.

With its ruling no. 2904 of 13 February 2015, the Court of Cassation established that it is legitimate to dismiss an assembly line worker who continuously fills car seats with paper and trash in order to play a joke on a colleague.

With its ruling no. 2692/15, the Court of Cassation established that an employee’s use of offensive and vulgar words to a company manager of a higher rank constitutes insubordination of a minor degree and, based on the provisions set out in the collective contract, can be punished with a conservative fine. On the contrary any measure for dismissal is considered wrongful.

The new Collective Economic Agreement between agents and principals in the industrial sector, effective as of 1 September 2014, contains many changes, particularly concerning variations in territory and/or products and/or customers and/or amount of commissions, for which the rules have been changed to the benefit of agents.

With its ruling no. 7567/2014, the Cassation Court, labour section, returned to examine the issue of unilateral changes in the agency contract, granting the appeal of an agent who claimed contractual clauses to be null which gave the principal the power to unilaterally make changes, with the sole obligation of notification, involving the territory and commissions, customer portfolio and product list.