Ilaria Salis ordered to pay over 300,000 euros in compensation to her two former colleagues

Ilaria Salis, a Member of the European Parliament for the Green-Left Alliance, has been ordered to pay just over 300,000 euros in damages to two former staff members to whom, in 2025, she gave notice of early termination of their contracts without just cause. The ruling was handed down by Franco Caroleo, a judge at the Milan Labour Court, following an appeal by the two former assistants, represented by lawyers Francesca Verdura, Tiziana Laratta and Sergio Romanotto. The judgement, filed on 10 March, was also published, without references, in a legal journal. According to the judge, the burden of proof regarding just cause lay with Salis, the employer, but the MEP failed to appear in the proceedings and “clearly did not fulfil her obligation”. Consequently, the Court reiterated, it must be concluded that “there was no just cause for the contested terminations”.

Salis, who was arrested in Hungary for assaulting far-right activists, was elected to the European Parliament with the Greens/Left Alliance in June 2024. This victory was also down to her two former staff members, who were subsequently dismissed after only a few months (in February 2025) without notice. The two contracts, both due to expire at the end of the parliamentary term (16 July 2029), offered essentially the same remuneration (€2,900 and €3,000 per month) and similar duties: the development of projects aimed at enhancing the role of the MEP, the planning and management of campaigns and events in Italy and abroad, assistance with contacts with the authorities, and political consultancy in strategic and tactical matters. But then the problems began. First, one assistant was given notice of early termination due to the ‘breakdown of the relationship of trust’, which transformed the working relationship into a ‘situation of professional and personal incompatibility’; then a colleague had their contract revoked with immediate effect ‘in view of the manifest dissatisfaction with the nature of their work’. This was an irreconcilable rift, in the face of which Ilaria Salis made no attempt to reach any sort of settlement, and which ultimately led to her losing the case in court. The outcome was an award of damages totalling 300,900 euros, covering the lost earnings of the two staff members until the end of their terms of office, and 10,000 euros for legal costs.

As the news broke, Deputy Prime Minister and Lega secretary Matteo Salvini posted a picture of Salis with the caption ‘SPIACE’. ‘There are those who defend jobs and workers with empty talk, and those, like Ilaria Salis, who even choose to humiliate them. Dismissing one’s staff without just cause is a petty act that leaves people out on the street overnight and does not allow them time to reorganise their lives. It was easy to champion the underprivileged in words, but a little harder to put those fine words into practice,” said Fabio Rampelli, Deputy Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies. Speaking to AdnKronos, Forza Italia spokesperson Raffaele Nevi commented on the incident as follows: “This affair once again exposes the hypocrisy of the left. Clearly, workers’ rights are merely a slogan to be waved in the streets, and not a principle to be upheld every day.”