Abstract

The essay investigates the role of nullity of discriminatory acts, introduced by art. 15, Act n. 300/1970, during the years following its approval and nowadays. Despite the weakness of the nullity with regard to the need to provide effective, proportional and dissuasive sanctions (due to the EU legislation), a new space for the sanction selected by Workers’ Statute could derive from the use of the ex officio detection of defects by the judge. The author highlights that the shortcomings of the declaration of nullity for what concern the effectiveness of the protection, are common to other inhibitory-constitutive sanctions. The most relevant difference among sanctions is rather to be found between those that lead to the creation of a new legal obligation for the employer, and those that present compulsive and dissuasive functions.