Information Note on the Court’s case-law 7

June 1999

A.B. v. Italy (dec.) - 41809/98

Decision 1.6.1999 [Section I]

Article 6

Civil proceedings

Article 6-1

Civil rights and obligations

Refusal by public bodies to grant various work-related allowances: admissible

[This summary also covers the following decisions of 3 June 1999: Mosca v. Italy (41810/98); and Mosticchio v. Italy (41808/98).]

The applicants, who work ed for, respectively, the Bank of Italy, the Cassa di Dipositi e Prestiti (the national savings and public loans bank) and the army, requested: payment in lieu of weekends and holidays when on call (Bonetti), an “encouragement and productivity” bonus (Mosc a) and extra pay for night-work (Mosticchio). Each having met with a refusal, they commenced proceedings in the administrative courts, proceedings which lasted over five years and six months (Bonetti), over six years and two months (Mosca) and almost nine years (Mosticchio).

Admissible under Article 6 § 1 (length of proceedings). The Government had submitted that the rights in issue were not “civil”. However, the rights claimed by the applicants appeared to be purely economic. Since the State’s discretionar y power was not in issue, the private-law aspects of the cases outweighed the public-law ones, so that Article 6 § 1 did apply.

© Council of Europe/European Court of Human Rights This summary by the Registry does not bind the Court.

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