With decision no. 24991/2025, the Italian Supreme Court has confirmed that the regulation concerning telematic resignations – and their revocation – provided for by Article 26, paragraphs 1, 2, 3, and 4, of Legislative Decree no. 151/2015, also applies to employees on probation. In the case at issue, an employee on probationary period initiated a proceeding before the Italian Employment Court of Pescara in order to ascertain the legitimacy and effectiveness of the withdraw of his resignations, which he had submitted within seven days since he had handed them in. The Court of Pescara considered the withdrawal lawful, as it was carried out within the time limits prescribed by law, and ordered the company to reinstate the employee under probationary status. The Court of Appeal endorsed such a decision, considering the telematic procedure for the submission – and revocation – of resignations valid and applicable also to those submitted during the probationary period. The territorial Court affirmed that Article 26, paragraphs 7 and 8-bis, of Legislative Decree No. 151/2015 expressly identifies the cases in which said procedure does not apply (i.e., in the field of domestic work; regarding resignations submitted in a protected venue, or by employees of the public administration), without in any way mentioning the probationary period as one of them. Therefore, the employer challenged such a decision before the Italian Supreme Court, arguing – among other complaints – that the regulation of telematic resignations does not apply when the probation period is being executed, as specified in Circular no. 12 of March 4th, 2016, of the Italian Ministry of Labor and Social Policies. The Supreme Court preliminarily clarified that ministerial circulars constitute internal acts of each administration, which are suitable for standardizing the action of subordinate administrative bodies but, in any case, incapable of creating law and binding the judicial interpretation of statutory provisions. Indeed, having found the aforementioned ministerial circular inapplicable , the Italian Supreme Court stated the compatibility between the regulation of probationary periods, which allow each party of the employment relationship to assess the relationship itself, and the regulation of telematic resignations, aimed at curbing abusive employer conduct, thus ascertaining, for the case at hand, the full validity and effectiveness of the revocation of the resignation submitted by the employee. More specifically, the Italian Supreme Court clarified the fundamental principle that, where a document that does not have the status of a primary legal source is in express conflict with the provisions of the latter, the former must evidently be applied, to the detriment of any provisions contained in acts of a clearly administrative nature, aimed at providing, where necessary, a mere interpretation of the relevant rules. Therefore, in the event of a lack of uniformity between the provisions to be implemented – as in the case at issue and, even more so, where a derogation from the primary rule is proposed – it is the latter that must prevail over notes, circulars, and other internal acts of individual entities, which are exclusively useful to their own functioning, which must therefore take precedence over the former.
2026 - Morri Rossetti
