After the ruling, the worker in question was rehired and the employer was forced to pay a compensation of 80 thousand euros.
If your colleagues are harassing you and your employer does nothing to stop it, the employer is liable and must compensate you. This is stated in the ruling number 5436 of March 11, 2026, issued by the Court of Cassation. The case involved an employee who developed anxiety and depression due to repeated harassment by colleagues. The employee had been dismissed for exceeding the allowed limit of absences, despite having pointed out that those absences were caused by illness and that the illness was caused by the employer’s failure to take “disciplinary” action. The Court of Latina, then the Court of Appeal of Rome, and finally the Cassation ruled in his favor. The dismissal was unlawful, compensation was due, and reinstatement in the workplace was ordered.
The Cassation clarifies that non-economic damage due to health impairment (what one suffers when work causes distress, essentially) is divided into distinct components that must be assessed separately. Biological damage concerns the impairment of psychological and physical integrity and can be verified with forensic expertise. Moral damage, defined as “a state of inner suffering,” is independent of practical consequences on daily life, cannot be assessed with medical tools, and must be evaluated independently. The judge must keep these items distinct, apply the national reference for the assessment of non-economic damage dictated by the tables of the Court of Milan and customize the calculation based on the case. The result, in this specific case, was a compensation of 80 thousand euros that took into account permanent damage, temporary damage during treatment, and the personalization related to the circumstances, namely the fact that the employer had proven negligent by not intervening in defense of his employee.
The ruling consolidates an important fact in Italian labor law: the employer’s obligation to protect workers is not limited to physical safety (with helmets, safety shoes, and other protective devices) but includes the protection of psychological health in the workplace. If colleagues who harass an employee cause a pathology, the chain of responsibility goes back to the employer who should have intervened and did not. In legal terms, this is referred to as liability for omission, meaning failing to supervise, failing to protect, and failing to stop the harassing behaviors.
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