Labour exploitation: the Cassation excludes the unconstitutional profiles of art. 603 bis

The fourth criminal section of the Court of Cassation intervened in support of Article 603 bis of the Italian Penal Code to fight against the labour exploitation. An important change of direction that specifies that there is no doubt about the constitutional legitimacy of article 603 bis. In particular, the Court examined the two aspects concerning the treatment of sanctions and the determination of the case.

Regarding the first aspect, the judges reaffirm that «the legislative choices in the field of criminal sanctions are censurable, in the review of constitutional legitimacy, only where they transmit in the manifest unreasonableness or arbitrary».

In terms of the problem analysed, art. 603a protects the dignity of the worker and responds to the need to repress the phenomenon of labour exploitation and prevent workers, and therefore those belonging to the weakest economic and social groups, from being subject to conditions of exploitation.

The sanction response is therefore «modelled on the need to counteract a frequent phenomenon and that is part of the more general horizon of the protection of the human dignity in the exercise of work».

To consult the full sentence: https://www.giurisprudenzapenale.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/9473-2023-cass-pen.pdf