Insights

Court of Cassation, with sentence no. 22334/2011, stated that de facto administrator of a company is liable for breach of rules regarding work safety but solely in the circumstances of proof of interference in managing the company.

On June 9, 2011 the final version of the Legislative Decree - realization of one delegation of the so called “Collegato Lavoro” (Law no. 183/2010) - which aims to simplify and reorganize the provisions concerning the regulations of leaves for employees of public and private sectors, was approved by the Council of Ministers.

Court of Cassation, with sentence no. 10341 of May 11, 2011, stated that indemnity in lieu of unused vacations and weekly rests is not considered as item of salary but compensation for damages.

According to the Justice Committee of the Chamber of Deputies the Legislative Decree which inserts the environmental crimes into the Legislative Decree no. 231/2001 extends excessively the liability of companies for environmental offenses as it would also introduce hypothesis of crime for minimum damage and for danger which would prove no real offensiveness.

Court of Cassation, with the sentence no. 20845/2011, stated that financial straits of the employer may not justify the missed payment of the social security deductions anyhow.

INPS, with message no. 11240/2011, communicated that the “procedural” verifications are initiated in order to exclude the sending of the so called “avvisi di addebito” – provided with a value of execution document since January 1, 2011, under Article 30 of Law by Decree no. 78/2010 (converted with Law no. 122/2010) – when payments have been already made.

Court of Cassation, with sentence no. 6625/2011, stated that the burden of proof regarding the possibility to assign the dismissing employee to duties equivalent or similar to those assigned before, is charged on the employer. Even though it has not to be understood in a strict way, this burden shall not be fulfilled solely with the proof of the proposal to the employee to carry out a self-employment activity, without any real guarantee related to job flow and compensation, in particular if worthier chances have been proposed to other employees.

The provisions issued with Memorandum no. 4/2011 by the Presidency of the Council of Ministers and by the Ministry of Labour, besides harmonizing the procedures between the public sector and the private one, fixed the deadline on June 17, 2011 for the definitive switchover to the data processing system (so called “Sac”) for the online health certificates sending.