Brussels – “The decision to terminate the working relationship with the two assistants was neither arbitrary, sudden nor without justification.” This was stated today (23 July) on her social media channels by Ilaria Salis, MEP for the Green Left Alliance and the European Left group, Ilaria Salis, in relation to the ruling that would see her pay €300,000 in compensation to two of her former staff members who were dismissed without just cause.
The ruling was handed down last March by a judge in the Labour Division of the Court of Milan. The two assistants had turned to a Milan-based law firm, which challenged the letter terminating with immediate effect the two c”oordinated and continuous collaboration” contracts signed by the two in February 2024. The judge ruled against the MEP as she had failed to appear in the proceedings and had not provided evidence of just cause for the dismissal. Salis will have to pay the two former collaborators €147,900 and €153,000 respectively, equivalent to the remuneration the workers would have accrued by the expiry of their contracts in 2029.
Salis reiterated that the termination of the collaboration had become “necessary to safeguard the proper exercise of her parliamentary mandate, the public resources entrusted to her care and, ultimately, the people she represents.” She therefore announced that she was contesting the decision in its entirety and had already lodged an appeal. “The case is currently pending on appeal, and I am therefore confident that the next level of jurisdiction will enable the facts to be correctly established,” she added.
The MEP reiterated: “I was not given the opportunity to defend myself at the first-instance hearing (which took place in my absence and without my knowledge) because, although the procedures for serving me with the documents were perfectly clear—it would have been sufficient to send a message to my email address or my certified email account—the notification never reached me.” Consequently, “given my absence through no fault of my own, the Court handed down its decision solely on the basis of evidence submitted by the applicants.” For this reason, the MEP now hopes “that the appeal proceedings will shed full light on the matter.”
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
