{"id":43093,"date":"2018-01-30T13:36:49","date_gmt":"2018-01-30T13:36:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studiozunarelli.com\/2025\/10\/02\/employers-defensive-monitoring-legitimate-use-of-a-private-detective\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T11:59:37","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T11:59:37","slug":"employers-defensive-monitoring-legitimate-use-of-a-private-detective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studiozunarelli.com\/en\/employers-defensive-monitoring-legitimate-use-of-a-private-detective\/","title":{"rendered":"Employer\u2019s defensive monitoring: legitimate use of a private detective"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pursuant to the provisions of Italian Legislative Decree 151\/2015 that partly modified the provisions outlined by the Workers\u2019 Statute with regard to audiovisual equipment and control instruments, the case law of the Corte di Cassazione <\/em>(Italian Supreme Court) has expressly recognized that the employer may carry out the so-called \u201cdefensive\u201d monitoring freely. That is, without necessarily having to preventively proceed to take the specific administrative\/trade union steps provided by Article 4 of the Workers\u2019 Statute.<\/p>\n

The disputed and uncertain case law that had developed in the last forty years seems now outdated. The old case law considered any monitoring carried out by the company as an illicit interference by the employer in the fundamental rights that safeguard the employee, not distinguishing between the purposes and the means used by the employer to carry out such monitoring.<\/p>\n

In fact, based on the above legislative amendment, the most recent case law has considered legitimate the use of investigations of a defensive nature that are aimed at ascertaining possible detrimental conducts by the employee, even outside the business environment, which may be considered fair reason or just cause for dismissal.<\/p>\n

Therefore, the employer has the possibility of hiring external private investigators in order to safeguard his interests, the only limit being the impossibility of straying to a generalized surveillance on the actual working activity, since such surveillance is exclusively up to the employer.<\/p>\n

The Corte di Cassazione<\/em>\u2019s judgement no. 9749\/16, concerning the employee\u2019s dismissal due to improper use of paid leave pursuant to article 33, Law 5 February 1992, no. 104 underlined that the monitoring entrusted to an investigation agency that is directly aimed at ascertaining a known illegitimate behaviour does not pertain to the verification of the fulfillment of the work performed, and in any case the employer\u2019s action would be justified also \u201cdue to the suspect or mere possibility that the wrong was being carried out ( Cassation. 3590\/11)<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n

The recent ruling no. 10636\/17 of the Italian Supreme Court considered legitimate also the dismissal of an employee who \u2012 thanks to a system of hidden video cameras installed by the investigation agency entrusted by the employer \u2012 was caught stealing products from the supermarket\u2019s storage room where he was working. The Court did not consider the video cameras in conflict with the provision of article 4 of the Workers\u2019 Statute, since they were de facto<\/em> video cameras installed in the storage room which were operated by an external company and were aimed at ascertaining behaviours different from the mere performance of work.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, it will be possible to use an external investigation agency to ascertain the existence and truthfulness of an illness declared by the employee, even if there are regular certificates attesting it.<\/p>\n

However, the employer does not have indiscriminate freedom. Before he intends to proceed with the so-called \u201cdefensive monitoring\u201d he must always verify the presence of the abovementioned requirements.<\/p>\n

(Labour Law Department – Marcello Giordani<\/a> \u2013 0039 (0)2 39680538)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pursuant to the provisions of Italian Legislative Decree 151\/2015 that partly modified the provisions outlined by the Workers\u2019 Statute with regard to audiovisual equipment and control instruments, the case law of the Corte di Cassazione (Italian Supreme Court) has expressly recognized that the employer may carry out the so-called \u201cdefensive\u201d monitoring freely. That is, without […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[203],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-insights"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nEmployer\u2019s defensive monitoring: legitimate use of a private detective - Studio Zunarelli<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/studiozunarelli.com\/en\/employers-defensive-monitoring-legitimate-use-of-a-private-detective\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Employer\u2019s defensive monitoring: legitimate use of a private detective - Studio Zunarelli\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Pursuant to the provisions of Italian Legislative Decree 151\/2015 that partly modified the provisions outlined by the Workers\u2019 Statute with regard to audiovisual equipment and control instruments, the case law of the Corte di Cassazione (Italian Supreme Court) has expressly recognized that the employer may carry out the so-called \u201cdefensive\u201d monitoring freely. 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