New starting date for the statute of limitations for employment claims

In its ruling no. 26246 of Sept. 6, 2022, the Italian Supreme Court ruled that the statute of limitations for employment claims runs from the termination of employment.

The Italian Supreme Court has ruled on the five-year statute of limitations for claims related to entitlements accrued by employees during their employment.

The issue had been debated after the reforms implemented by the so-called Fornero Law (Law no. 92 of 2012), which amended Article 18 of the Workers' Statute and the so-called Jobs Act (Legislative Decree no. 23 of 2015) regarding the protection regime in case of unlawful dismissal.

In particular, the reforms above meant that reinstatement in the workplace became a secondary remedy in case of unfair dismissal.

After the entry into force of the Workers' Statute in the 70s, the Constitutional Court stated that the deferral of the running of the statute of limitations to the end of the employment relationship was not justifiable. The Court grounded such decision on the stability of the employment relationship guaranteed by the reinstatement protection provided by Article 18 of said statute,

However, more recently, the Fornero Reform and the Jobs Act have reshaped the employees’ protection regime in case of unfair dismissal, limiting the reinstatement in the post to a relatively small number of issues.

The case at issue deals with the claim by a group of workers for the payment of certain amounts claimed only after the end of their employment. The Court of Appeals held that this right was time-barred, stating that the five-year statute of limitations was already elapsed during the relationship.

The Supreme Court, on the other hand, noted that the amendments to Article 18 materially impaired the stability of the employment relationship, shifting from an automatic application of the reinstatement protection to every instance of unlawful dismissal to a more selective application of the same.

The Supreme Court, therefore, affirmed that, for entitlements that are not forfeited at the time of the entry into force of Law no. 92 of 2012, the limitation period runs, under Articles 2948, no. 4 and 2935 of the Italian Civil Code, from the termination of the employment relationship.