The Civil Court of Verona, at the end of a long trial instigated by a trade union organisation against a large Italian steel company, denied the claim for compensation by the aforementioned organisation for damage to its image allegedly suffered due to the occurrence of a fatal accident at work of one of their members.
The union organisation, on the assumption of having, by statute, the objective of promoting occupational safety, argued that the accident in question had a negative impact on union interests and objectives, with consequent compromise of the union's image to workers and public opinion.
The steelworks, defended by Studio Legale Menichetti, obtained the complete rejection of the opposing claims. It was validly argued in court that the alleged damage to the image, wrongly claimed by the trade union organisation, cannot in any case derive directly and automatically from the activity of protection of the collective rights promoted by the union. In court, it was also shown that the arguments given by the union organisation led to the paradoxical conclusion that any accident at work, as detrimental to the right to health of workers, would in itself be enough to generate an automatic right of trade unions to compensation for non-pecuniary damage, without even the need to prove the effectiveness of the alleged damage.
The court ruled, adhering to the defensive theses formulated in the course of the trial by Studio Legale Menichetti, and rejected all the claims for damages in question, thus concluding: "the association's prospect does not allow for “ubi consistam” of the damage, resolving the latter in the tautology for which the damage to the image is to be compensated as there is damage to the image ... The compensation claim proposed cannot therefore be accepted". (LP)
