Di prossima pubblicazione in Lavoro Diritti Europa

This article revisits the legal structure of disciplinary dismissal in contemporary Italian law in light of recent Constitutional Court and Supreme Court of Cassation case law. It argues that the traditional symbolic centrality of reinstatement has progressively weakened, giving way to a normative framework centred on the disciplinary fact as the causal basis of dismissal, on collective bargaining typification as a benchmark for proportionality, and on trust conceived not as a subjective state but as an objective criterion of organisational compatibility.
Through a systematic analysis of contentious areas of litigation—such as employees’ freedom of criticism in digital contexts, poor performance, abuse of protected leave, and extra-contractual conduct—the article shows how case law increasingly rejects moralistic or purely psychological notions of trust breakdown. Instead, dismissal is assessed through a typological inquiry into whether the established conduct is functionally incompatible with continuation of the employment relationship.
Disciplinary dismissal thus emerges as a key site for observing tensions within the employment contract. The parallel between employees’ abuse of rights and employers’ abuse of disciplinary power reveals a shared erosion of relational trust, suggesting that dismissal ultimately tests the sustainability of a long-term organisational bond grounded in mutual reliance.