Arya News - An Italian man sacked from a recycling company for falling asleep at work was unfairly dismissed, a court has ruled.
Francesco Rucci said he was stuck in a room for 12 hours a day only seeing a blank wall and a shelf with boxes
An Italian man sacked from a recycling company for falling asleep at work was unfairly dismissed, a court has ruled.
Francesco Rucci was dismissed in May 2023 after being photographed with his eyes closed and his head slightly bowed, behaviour the employer said amounted to sleeping at work which posed “a safety risk”.
Mr Rucci, who joined Ecologistic in Ginosa in 2016 – a company that recycles plastic into fruit and vegetable crates – denied wrongdoing and challenged the dismissal, saying he was suffering from insomnia.
“I remember perfectly the day I felt dizzy, closed my eyes for about 10 minutes, and dozed off. They fired me,” he said.
The court of appeal in Taranto, a coastal city in southern Italy, ruled that the dismissal was “unfair” and an “illegitimate act”, finding there was “no significant breach” that justified the most severe disciplinary sanction.
‘Little to do’
Judges ordered for Mr Rucci to be reinstated and the payment of all outstanding wages, including severance pay.
The court heard that before his dismissal, Mr Rucci had been reassigned to a workspace where he spent long periods with little to do, following disagreements with management over workplace practices.
The new role was described as a promotion, but without any salary increase or new responsibilities.
He described the job as “an imposed isolation… where time never passed”.
From his desk, he said, he could see “only a blank wall, a shelf with boxes, a trash can, and another room through glass windows”, remaining there “for 12 hours a day”, with “no internet connection even to pass the time”.
He said he was left in a condition of “total inactivity and professional humiliation”, later carrying out “marginal and demeaning tasks”.
‘Emotional breakdown’
During the nearly three-year legal battle, Mr Rucci said he suffered “an emotional breakdown” and “stopped sleeping”.
“At night, I had to take pills without which I couldn’t sleep… I looked at my children and felt so guilty,” he said.
The family, he added, had to “roll up [their] sleeves” financially as a single-income household, with his wife later taking on part-time work.
A union representative at the time, Mr Rucci criticised what he called “the total absence of a union that failed to defend either its own member or its delegate”.
He said his colleagues “feared retaliation from the company” and that he was “surprised not to receive even a sign of sympathy from many of them”.
Despite reinstatement, he says: “I don’t know how I’ll feel about returning. It will certainly have a strong impact.”
Mr Rucci said he will “return to work with [his] head held high” and vowed to “continue to defend workers’ rights fearlessly”.
“Today, more than ever, resistance is needed. And it’s needed by everyone,” he said.
Try full access to The Telegraph free today. Unlock their award-winning website and essential news app, plus useful tools and expert guides for your money, health and holidays.