Court Rules Lunch Break Porn Is Not A Sackable Offence

The Court of Cassation, Italy’s highest court, has ruled that it is acceptable, and not a sackable offence, for workers to watch porn on their lunch breaks. 

The Supreme Court overruled a decision by a lower court sanctioning the sacking of a factory worker by the Fiat car manufacturer in 2008, LiveSicilia reported.

After a protracted five-year legal battle, the judges decided that there was nothing wrong with watching explicit material on a break, rather than in working hours, and the defendant in the case will keep his job.

The employee was originally caught watching a hardcore, pornographic DVD on his personal computer in an electrical supply room on the factory floor during lunch. Two more hardcore DVDs were later found in his locker during a search.

However, the judge ruled that the worker was free to do as he wished on his lunch break in Italy, a nation which gave the world its first ‘Porn University‘ reality TV show this month.

The judges in Rome said that the man had enjoyed “just a glimpse of the film during a meal break” and claimed his choice of down time had not interfered with the rest of his shift.

The court heard that there was no evidence to suggest the man was watching the explicit material during normal working hours.

The legal row started five years ago, when a court in Termini Imeresi, near Palermo, initially found the employee could be fired.

Then Palermo’s court of appeal overturned the verdict, before the car manufacturer brought an appeal to the Supreme Court because they still wanted to dismiss him, which was upheld in the Court of Cassation this week.

However, smoking marijuana at lunch will remain a dismissible offence, after the judges ruled in Fiat’s favour in a separate case.

An employee at the company’s factory in Turin was caught smoking cannabis during his lunch break, and the judges upheld the company’s right to sack him.