Illegitimate dismissals: the Constitutional Court dismantles another piece of the Jobs Act: the six-month cap is unconstitutional, it was one of the referendum questions.

The referendums on employment promoted by the CGIL and the Democratic Party failed at the polls, given the lack of a quorum among those entitled to vote, but one of the questions posed by the union was dismantled by the Constitutional Court .

The Constitutional Court has in fact established that the six-month salary cap on compensation in the event of unfair dismissal in small businesses is unconstitutional .

The reference is to Article 9, paragraph 1, of Legislative Decree No. 23 of 2015 (the Renzi-era Jobs Act), which establishes that in the event of unfair dismissal by an employer who does not meet the size requirements of Article 18 of the Workers' Statute (i.e., who employs no more than 15 workers at a production unit or within a municipality, and in any case no more than sixty employees), the amount of compensation "may not in any case exceed the limit of six months' salary" of the final reference salary for calculating severance pay for each year of service.

According to the Constitutional Court judges, imposing such a fixed and insurmountable maximum limit regardless of the severity of the dismissal violation, coupled with the provision for halving the amounts specified in the Jobs Act itself, limits the amount of the compensation to such a narrow range that the judge cannot respect the criteria of personalization, adequacy, and appropriateness of the compensation for the damages suffered by the unlawfully dismissed worker, nor ensure the deterrent effect of the compensation itself against the employer.

For this reason, the Constitutional Court expresses its hope for legislative intervention , namely Parliament, on the issue of dismissals of employees of companies below the threshold: the judges recall that in European legislation, and also in Italian legislation (albeit in other sectors such as corporate crises), the criterion of the number of employees does not constitute the exclusive indicator of the economic strength of the company and therefore of the sustainability of the costs associated with illegitimate dismissals.

For the Democratic Party, the Constitutional Court's decision " certifies the reasons of the promoters and the 13 million citizens who voted in the referendum to remove the six-month salary cap on severance pay for unfair dismissals in companies with fewer than 15 employees. They were on the right side," said Maria Cecilia Guerra , MP and head of Labor for the Democratic Party, and Arturo Scotto , the Democratic Party group leader in the Labor Committee in the Chamber of Deputies.

The Court "did so using the same rationale for the referendum: the 0-6 month range does not allow the judge to adequately take into account the circumstances, and the number of employees is not a correct indicator of the economic strength of the company. The Court urges legislative action to address the ruling of unconstitutionality. We will urge the government to respond to this Court's request, including by submitting a bill on the issue in the coming days," the two Democratic Party MPs wrote in a statement.