Il contributo è destinato alla pubblicazione sulla rivista Argomenti di Diritto del Lavoro n. 6/2013.

In this article the A. deals with the answers given by the Italian Labour Courts to the most questionable provisions of the so called “Fornero Act” (L. 92/2012) in matter of the consequences of null, void and unfair dismissals falling under the scope of Article 18 of the Workers’ Statute (L. 300/1970). After a brief recap of the main aims pursued by the recent Reform, with a special focus on the major target of reducing the space given to the reinstatement remedy, the A. reports on a few cases of extensive interpretation of discrimination in dismissal, which had the effect of paralyzing de facto the impact of the new rules; moreover, a specific remark is given to the tendency of the Courts to apply the “traditional” remedy of reinstatement, although in the new “weakened form”, in most hypothesis of disciplinary dismissal, thus showing another sign of continuity (or “path dependence”) with the past. With regard to the economic dismissal, the examined decisions did not clarify yet the boundaries of the new, crucial “category” of the “evident lack of the fact at the basis of the economic dismissal”, which subordinates any residual chance of reinstatement of the worker (or, more properly, the “possibility,  or, alternatively, the “duty” of the Judge to apply the latter remedy) in the mentioned case of dismissal. At the very end, the A. expresses a critical overall evaluation on the effects of the new rules, after one year of judicial interpretative activity, underlining how the lack of clearness (or even ambiguity) of the law text prevented any (eventual) chance of limiting the judicial discretion in dismissal cases.