From Turin to Palermo the map of litigation in the Courts

As for dismissals, there are 827 cases of workers seeking reinstatement registered in the first half of 2025.

"Other disputes that are occurring more frequently," adds Judge Ghinoy, "are aimed at obtaining protection against discrimination on the grounds of gender, nationality or disability. There are also more disputes related to the sale of business branches than in the past'.

The Court of Bologna recorded a surge in new labour cases in 2024: new registrations amounted to approximately 4,600, compared to an average flow, in previous years, of under 3,000 cases per year.

"The reason for this increase," explains labour section president Maurizio Marchesini, "is partly to be found in a contingent situation, consisting of the closure of some large logistics cooperatives in the province, and partly in the general trend of an upturn in labour disputes in the post-Covid period. The matter of the cooperatives closed in 2024,' he adds, 'concerns the economic claims of workers who were dismissed and then rehired by other economic operators.

In the first half of 2025, there were 1,815 new cases registered. 'This figure,' the judge continues, 'suggests that the total number of new cases this year will exceed 2024, net of the cooperative case. The increase in labour cases can be attributed to the greater complexity of society, the advancement of technology and the multiplication of sources of law, starting with EU law and European Court of Justice rulings. New forms of work give rise to problems that are solved first through case law and only later through new legislation'. Even in the province of Bologna there has been a lot of litigation coming from schools for years, mainly related to the precarious work of substitute teachers.

About 4,000 more appeals in 2024 than in the previous year. This is what emerges from an analysis of the data held by the chancelleries, extracted from the computer system that manages appeals at the Rome Court. The post-Covid rebound effect determined this. "From a first reading of the data for the first half of 2025, it would appear that the trend is very similar to that of the first half of 2024," he continues. The total number of cases registered in the first half of 2024 was 24,952. "Of these, 9477," explains Antonio Maria Luna, president of the Labour Section of the Court of Rome, "are ATPs (Accertamento tecnico preventivo) pursuant to Article 445-bis of the Code of Civil Procedure and 2747 are appeals for injunction. Therefore, the 'ordinary' cases totalled 12,728, of which 2648 were public employment cases, i.e. slightly more than 20 per cent. The result for the first half of 2025 was similar: the total was 23,599, of which 8783 were ATPs and 2984 appeals for injunctive decree; therefore, since there were 2,320 civil service cases, the percentage incidence was 19.60 per cent".

The fastest growing cases compared to the years 2022 and 2023 are the social security and welfare cases, and appeals against MIM, in fact, in the first half of 2024 alone about 2,100 appeals were registered and 2,300 in the first half of 2025. "In the school sector, the biggest increase was recorded for appeals for the teacher's charter. Another relevant issue in litigation in the school sector is that on the payment of unused holiday pay to precarious teachers," Luna confirms.

In 2024, the Court of Naples was the Court that registered the most new cases in public employment. And the trend is upward, explains the president of the third labour section of the Court, Paolo Coppola: "Between 1 July 2024 and 30 June 2025, public litigation increased, compared to the same period in 2024, by more than 42%, with 6,146 new cases. Of these, 2,931 concern the school sector. Another relevant strand concerns healthcare, where new registrations rose from 1,404 to 2,540. There are two main issues: the recalculation of the pay during holidays, with the inclusion of all pay items received on a continuous basis, and the remuneration of the days of holiday work during the week for shift workers. These are numbers that put the labour jurisdiction in Naples, but I think in Italy, in a very serious crisis'.

In Naples, appeals against dismissals in the private sector have also increased. The reasons, according to Coppola, lie in 'the increase in the possibilities of reinstatement in the workplace after the Consulta rulings. Before these decisions, those who appealed against the illegitimate termination of a fixed-term contract could only access the reduced protection of the contract with growing protections: so much so that workers preferred to wait for a new fixed-term contract. But, as the chances of reinstatement have grown, acting against unlawful terminations has become more attractive'.

An increase of 16.7% in the private sector and 42% in the public sector. This is the trend of litigation in Palermo that does not signal any reversal of the trend, "since," explains Cinzia Soffientini, president of the Labour Section of the Court, "in the first six months of 2025 we already have a 67 per cent growth in labour litigation in the public sector. In the case of the Sicilian context 'we discount,' she continues, 'regional autonomy. Yes, there is all the school litigation that is common to the whole school territory, but the largest share is determined by regional legislation with all the fixed-term hirings or with special disciplines, for example, those of the foresters, which in particular this year are the ones that have increased the number of pending cases'.

Another important share concerns the benefits that the state gives to people who are disadvantaged either because of their health condition or because of their health and economic condition at the same time, from the disability pension to the accompaniment allowance. "Benefits that very often constitute income support for many. This kind of litigation has a constant trend. A trend that, starting in 2022, 2023 and 2024, has grown I believe due to the fact that these are benefits that require medical examinations in order to be paid and that these examinations in the Covid period had been suspended'.