Italian Supreme Court rules on meal voucher rights for shift workers

The Italian Supreme Court (Corte di Cassazione) has ruled that employees are entitled to meal vouchers (buoni pasto) once their work shift exceeds six consecutive hours, regardless of whether they can physically leave their workstation to eat.

In a specific case involving a nurse in an internal medicine department, the healthcare employer had denied meal vouchers because the employee had to eat while remaining at her post to monitor alarms. The Court, through ordinance n. 24866 of August 31, 2026, overturned this decision, stating that the right to the benefit is determined by the total duration of the daily commitment rather than the structure or location of the break.

The ruling emphasizes that meal vouchers have an “assistential” rather than a purely “retributive” nature, meaning they are intended to recognize the physiological needs of the worker. This distinction also allows employers to suspend the benefit for remote workers (smart working), as the benefit is tied to the necessity of eating away from home.