The Court of Cassation recently reaffirmed that Article 38 of Legislative Decree 81/15, which regulates irregular agency work, has remained unchanged and that the 24-month maximum limit must be considered extended to temporary employment relationships with temporary agency workers.
A worker repeatedly hired on a fixed-term basis by a temporary work agency was employed on numerous assignments by the same user company which, after 37 months, decided not to use the temporary worker further.
The worker brought an action before the Court claiming that the employment relationship had been established by the user company, stating that he had carried out work for the said company from 15 April 2015 until 13 April 2019 under 47 fixed-term contracts stipulated with the temporary employment agency for a total of 37 months.
The Brescia Court of Appeal, overturning the first-instance ruling, deemed fixed-term employment for a period exceeding 24 months to be unlawful and consequently ordered the reinstatement of the employment relationship with the user company.
The Court of Cassation, after a thorough examination of the applicable regulatory framework, rejected the appeal with ruling no. 29577 of November 7, 2025, noting that Article 38 of Legislative Decree 81/15, which regulates irregular temporary work, remained unchanged and that the maximum 24-month limit must be considered to also apply to fixed-term employment relationships with temporary work agencies.
The Supreme Court therefore concluded that, since a temporary employment agency cannot logically hire a worker to be sent on assignment to the same user with one or more fixed-term contracts exceeding the 24-month limit, the user cannot legitimately receive the same worker on assignment to perform the same tasks under multiple commercial contracts where the assignments exceed the maximum period of 24 months.
Breach of the limit due to the close causal relationship of the trilateral relationship, in the Court's opinion, also invalidates the temporary employment relationship, resulting in the establishment of the relationship with the user.
Attorney Nicoletta Di Lolli