Labor Law Investigations

Investigations for Law Firms: Labor Law

The connection between private investigators and labor law is becoming increasingly significant, since business owners are allowed to conduct defensive monitoring aimed at protecting the company’s assets and reputation. This monitoring is intended to verify any unlawful behavior by employees, beyond mere failure to perform work duties.

Given this connection, Argo has over the years established collaborations with companies and law firms appointed by them, creating important synergies aimed at protecting their clients.

Indeed, the documentation collected and presented in court by the private investigator serves as full proof of employee misconduct, supported further by the sworn testimony given during the trial. Often, the need to hire a private investigation agency arises precisely from the different powers granted to investigators compared to private citizens.

In recent years, lawyers have increasingly valued the collaboration with investigative agencies as an added asset when facing litigation, especially considering the obstacles that can arise during labor disputes and the necessity to present concrete evidence in court.

Why turn to a private investigator

In labor law, the main advantage is certainly the ability to gather evidence to be used in court which, if obtained otherwise, would be unusable. This refers, for example, to evidence collected through video recordings.

In 2017, with the Supreme Court ruling no. 10636 of May 2nd, the dismissal for just cause of a supermarket employee was upheld based on “hidden” video recordings made on company premises during working hours. The investigative agency had been tasked with installing cameras monitoring a single shelf holding products entrusted exclusively to staff of third-party companies, not to supermarket employees, who had already been involved in misconduct. The employee, later dismissed, was caught on video removing products from the confectionery department stockroom.

The Supreme Court clarified that “…the adoption of defensive control tools does not require, as a matter of course, prior agreement with union representatives nor any specific authorization, as it is aimed at preventing unlawful conduct that could endanger the security of company assets and the proper and regular performance of work duties, provided that the need to prevent illegal conduct by employees does not justify a substantial annulment of any form of guarantee of the dignity and privacy of the employee. For this reason, covert defensive monitoring, even when carried out by personnel external to the company organization, is generally admissible, as it is aimed at verifying unlawful conduct different from mere failure to perform work duties, provided that the control is conducted in a way that is not excessively invasive and respects the guarantees of freedom and dignity of employees.”

Therefore, the benefit of relying on private investigation becomes even clearer considering that if a company installs unauthorized, hence covert, devices, any evidence collected would be inadmissible both in civil proceedings and labor trials, except for the possibility of forwarding them to the Public Prosecutor’s Office for criminal investigation. Thus, covert video recording by a private individual aimed at employee dismissal would not be usable in civil or labor court.

Consequently, the support of an investigative agency in these contexts is undeniably a resource both for the company and the assisting lawyer, from the perspective of evidence admissibility to support claims presented in court.

An experienced team of investigators, after analyzing the issues, will outline a strategy aimed at identifying any fraudulent employee behaviors that could irreparably compromise the trust at the basis of the employment relationship and cause serious damage to the company.