Florence’s court of appeal has confirmed that the education ministry must compensate a Spanish teacher from the Arezzo province for a decade of fixed-term contracts. ANSA reported the ruling on 17 October; Corriere Fiorentino carried it on 18 October. She is a permanent teacher now. The judges say the permanent post does not wipe out the harm. This is one civil case, not a law for the whole profession.

She taught Spanish language and literature in the same upper school, on 13 yearly contracts, from 2009-10 to 2024-25, 114 months and 27 days. The European limit cited is 36 months. In 2020 she won the ordinary competition, first on the list. The permanent appointment came only on 1 September 2025. Arezzo’s tribunal found for her. The ministry appealed: once she was made permanent, nothing more was due.

The labour division of the appeal court dismissed the appeal. The indemnity stays at four months’ pay, inside the legal range of 4 to 24 months. Lawyer Amedeo Stoppa said she won the post on merit, not as a direct effect of the abuse, and that by the time the competition opened the abuse was already years old. The court noted that the 2020 tests were a pre-selection, two written papers and an oral, open also to those already permanent.

The ministry asked for the appointment to be treated as a remedy. The court said it is not a wipe-clean for missed seniority steps. One appeal judgment in one file does not automatically rewrite every supply contract in Italy. Other teachers would each have to bring their own case, if they have one.

The teacher’s name is not in the ANSA report. She remains a person from Arezzo, with a Florence decision. The ministry can, in principle, go further; for now the story stops at the confirmed indemnity.

Teaching precariousness is an old theme in Italy. Here it is a file, four months’ pay and a sentence from the court: a permanent post won by competition does not cancel what happened before.

Image: Sailko, Accademia di Belle Arti, Florence, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons; a city education building, not the Arezzo school.

Sources consulted: The teacher who was precarious for 10 years must be compensated by the ministry - ANSA; Arezzo, teacher precarious for ten years, ministry ordered to compensate her - Corriere Fiorentino.