March 6, 2025
Dismissal for just cause
Offensive content in chat between colleagues: dismissal ruled illegitimate
Supreme Court, Labor Section
An employee was dismissed for just cause after recording and sending several voice messages in a WhatsApp chat with thirteen colleagues, containing offensive, derogatory, threatening, and racist remarks about his team leader.
The Supreme Court confirmed the illegitimacy of the dismissal already recognized by the Court of Appeal, ruling that the protection of the freedom and confidentiality of private correspondence and the right to privacy in the employment relationship prevents the mere content of private communications — sent via personal devices to specific individuals with the intent to remain confidential — from constituting just cause for dismissal, regardless of how the employer came to know of them.
March 7, 2025
Disability
Disability and physiotherapy: absence unjustified without prior certification
Supreme Court, Labor Section
A civilly disabled employee of a public administration was dismissed after being absent for almost a month without submitting medical certification in a timely manner. She only later produced documentation from a physiotherapy center confirming the treatment.
The case went through several stages of litigation and ultimately reached the Supreme Court, which upheld the dismissal and clarified an important principle regarding absence for treatment by disabled employees.
The Court reiterated that, to legitimize such an absence, the employee must provide — at the time of the leave request — valid certification issued by a public healthcare facility or one affiliated with the National Health Service.
Later submission of proof of treatment is not sufficient to justify the absence: what matters is the prior certification needed to legitimize the right to leave. Without such documentation, the absence is considered unjustified and may warrant dismissal.
