Watching pornography at work during your lunch break is not an offence, Italy's highest court has ruled.
Fiat wanted to sack an employee who was caught watching pornographic DVDs on his laptop.
The
Supreme Court in Rome rejected the judgment of a lower court which had
sanctioned the decision by Fiat, the car manufacturer, to sack a factory
worker who was caught watching pornographic films on his personal
computer during a break in his shift.
The
employee, identified in court documents only as Giuseppe Z, was caught
watching a hardcore DVD on his laptop at a Fiat factory in Termini
Imerese in Sicily in 2008.
A search of his locker revealed two other pornographic DVDs.
The Supreme Court ruled that the worker was free to do what he wanted on his lunch break and should not have been fired.
Judges
in Rome said that he had enjoyed "just a glimpse of the film during a
meal break" and that it had not interfered with the rest of his shift.
The worker was found watching the porn in an electricity supply room on the factory floor.
The protracted legal case began in 2010 when a court in Sicily upheld Fiat's decision to dismiss the man.
But
the judgment was overturned in 2011 by a court of appeal in Palermo,
the regional capital, and its decision has now been confirmed by the
Supreme Court.
The
court in Rome did, however, rule in Fiat's favour in another case –
that of an employee at its factory in Turin who was caught smoking
marijuana during his lunch break.
The judges upheld the company's right to sack him.
