Ex Ilva: judge reinstates worker sacked for a post

There is no way to believe that the references to the Taranto steel plant in the post remain in the present and project towards the future so as to also affect Acciaierie D’Italia spa. This was written by the judge of the Court of Taranto, labor section, Giovanni Di Palma, in the order – deposited on July 26 – with which he orders the reintegration of the employee Riccardo Cristello against the former Ilva and former ArcelorMittal Italia . Compensation for damages has also been established with the payment to the worker “of an indemnity equal to the total remuneration in fact from the day of dismissal to that of effective reinstatement, plus revaluation and interest”.

Riccardo Cristello, from tarantino, is the technician that the company, last April, first suspended from work for five days together with another colleague and then fired (while the other employee, in the face of the apologies presented to the company, received no further action). Everything revolves around a post that the two workers have put on their Facebok bulletin board relating to the fiction of Canale 5, “Wake up my love”, with Sabrina Ferilli, based on the idea and direction of Simona Izzo and Ricky Tognazzi. The fiction tells of a polluting steel mill, located near a city, and of a little girl who, due to emissions, falls ill.

Loading…

In the disputed post, Acciaierie d’Italia saw an offense to the image and reputation of the company and its managers. The case, months ago, caused a stir and also intervened the Minister of Labor, Andrea Orlando, who received the dismissed employee at the ministry and tried to make the company take a step back. The judge now closes the case and on the basis of the arguments expressed by the defense of the dismissed, clarifies that there is no reference to the current management of the Taranto steel plant. According to the magistrate, “since there is no reason to link the facts subject of the charge to the plan of relevance of the loyalty obligations to be borne by the worker or to correlate them with the non-observance of the general principles of correctness and contractual good faith, it must be exclude that such extra-work conduct may, from this point of view, assume disciplinary significance “. The lack of integration of the just cause has been ascertained, De Palma continues, referring to the reason given by the company. The judge then clarifies two controversial points of the affair: there has been no corporate retaliation and what Cristello has posted on his Fb bulletin board is not simply sharing a message from others. In fact, the judge writes that there is no way to demonstrate that the Acciaierie d’Italia company has reached the … disciplinary dispute with the exclusive intent of pursuing retaliatory purposes, nor is there, in any case, reason to believe … that the expulsive measure to the lack of public compliance of the worker can be used to bring out the feared retaliation of the act.

And as for Cristello, the magistrate notes that the contents of the post in question, contrary to what is claimed by the plaintiff, means the defense of the worker, “do not emanate from sharing a message posted by others on social Facebook, but are , instead, directly attributable to Cristello, having the applicant “posted” on the bulletin board of his profile.

For Mario Soggia, lawyer of the USB union who assisted Cristello in court, “Judge De Palma basically accepts our defense and agrees that in the disputed post there is no reference to the current management of the steel industry, that is to Acciaierie d’Italia. In fact – continues the lawyer -, that post certainly started from fiction, but in the television series there is talk of an unidentified city, therefore no reference to Taranto, and above all to facts that date back to 2002, or to a time period largely prior upon the arrival of ArcelorMittal Italia in the management of the steel industry “.