LABOUR | Unlawfulness of dismissal for cause due to offensive content in a chat among co-workers

On 6 March 2025, the Labour Section of the Italian Supreme Court issued its judgement in the case No. 5936 stating that, with regards to dismissal for cause of an employee who sent insulting messages towards his superior to his colleagues in a private Whatsapp group chat, the text messages exchanged in such group chat do not constitute grounds for dismissal for cause. The reasoning behind this ruling is that a message sent in a private chat is directed solely to the members of that group and not to a multitude of people – as might be the case with a Facebook post – and therefore cannot be considered defamatory conduct. Communications that take place in a confidential setting – as the messages exchanged in a group chat in this instance – are to be qualified as a sealed and inviolable letters, protected by Article 15 of the Italian Constitution, which protects the freedom and confidentiality of communications.

Newsletter n. 107 – May 2025