A worker who started her job before the date stipulated in the employment contract managed to have the court declare her dismissal unlawful due to alleged failure to comply with the trial period. The decision forced the employer to reinstate her and pay compensation corresponding to 12 months’ salary, worth more than 20,000 euros.
The situation occurred in Italy and involves an employee of the breakfast area at the Hotel Ausonia Hungaria, located on the Lido in Venice. According to the Spanish digital newspaper Noticias Trabajo, the determining factor for the court decision was the fact that the worker began working around a week before the date indicated in the formal contract signed with the company.
Trial period called into question
The court considered that the trial period provided for in the contract could not be considered valid. As a consequence, the dismissal based on the alleged failure to use this period also had no legal effect.
Throughout the process, employer and worker presented divergent versions regarding the dates of beginning of professional activity and signing of the contract. According to the same sources, the company even communicated corrected hiring dates to the Employment Center after the end of the employment relationship.
The testimony of several people proved decisive in the decision. Witnesses confirmed that the worker was already performing duties before the official date of signing the contract, on March 28th. These activities included not only trying on the uniform or collecting identification data, but also learning the management software used by the hotel.
For the court, these tasks constitute effective work and initial training typical of the beginning of an employment relationship, and cannot be excluded from the concept of paid activity.
Based on these elements, the dismissal was declared invalid. The company was therefore obliged to reinstate the employee and pay her compensation corresponding to 12 months’ salary, totaling more than 20,000 euros.
Additionally, as stated in , the employer will also have to regularize contributions to social security and other social protection systems for the period in question. The case demonstrates how discrepancies in defining the start date of an employment contract can result in relevant financial consequences for companies.
And in the Portuguese context?
In Portugal, a similar situation would be assessed in light of the Labor Code, which establishes that the trial period must be duly formalized and corresponds to the initial period of execution of the contract. Any work actually performed before the contractual date is, as a rule, considered effective and relevant work for seniority purposes.
If it were demonstrated that the worker performed duties specific to his position before the date indicated in the contract, the trial period could be considered non-existent or null, making a dismissal based on this basis unlawful.
In these circumstances, the Portuguese courts could order the reinstatement of the worker or, alternatively, upon the worker’s choice or practical impossibility, order the employer to pay substitute compensation, as well as regularize the remuneration and outstanding Social Security contributions.
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