ITA 
Published on Sole24Ore – Nt Lavoro – on 08/08/2023
The guarantee of the irreducibility of salary extends only to remuneration compensating for the essential intrinsic professional qualities of the assigned duties, but not to those components that are paid to compensate for particular modes of work performance. Thus, the Supreme Court with its judgment no. 23205/2023 of 31 July.
The case originates from the appeal of an employee who complained about compensation for pecuniary damage suffered as a result of the employer's decision to change his duties, with an attached termination of his company car and related benefits (fuel card and washes). The Court of Appeal, partially reforming the Court of First Instance judgment, rejected the employee’s appeal, because it wasn’t proved the employer’s duties breach. The court also held that the remuneration irreducibility principle did not apply because the company car and related benefits were not included in the notion of compensatory pay for performance and so irreducible. In fact, it had not been inferred and proven that the new role filled necessarily included the car assignment.
The employee appealed to the Court of Cassation claiming that the company car was part of his salary, and that it wasn’t linked to performance of his duties, and so, not reducible neither in case of change of duties, owing him, if any, the economic countervalue on a monthly basis. According to the Supreme Court, the appeal cannot be upheld due to the well-established orientation of the jurisprudence of merit and legitimacy on the irreducibility of salary.
In particular the Court recall that the salary level obtained by the employee, protected by the guarantee of salary irreducibility rule, provided for by Article 2103 of the Civil Cod, must be determined by computing the total amount of remuneration paid, but taking into account the professional qualities inherent in the employee’s duties, that is, inherent in the professionalism typical of the position held. Better – favour treatments constitute additional components to the minimums salary and are not covered by the protection of Article 36 Constitution. So, deleting them, it’s not in contrast with the salary irreducibility principle. In fact, it does not include compensation paid on the grounds of particular methods of work performance or linked to specific discomfort or difficulty, which are not due when the situations to which they were linked cease to exist.
Basically, the salary irreducibility principle must be coordinated with the legitimate exercise of “ius variandi” by the employer. Accordid to the Court of Cassation, the guarantee of the salary irreducibility extends only to compensatory pay for the essential intrinsic professional qualities of previous duties, but not to those components of remuneration that are paid to compensate for particular patterns of work performance (Court of Cassation 38169/2022).