'Okay for workers to view porn during lunch break'

Employees cannot be sacked for watching porn on the job provided they do so during their lunch break, Italy's supreme court ruled, rejecting an appeal from car giant Fiat against a worker's reinstatement.

"The evidence was insufficient to prove that the employee viewed porn during his working hours," the Court Cassation said in its ruling on Wednesday.

The court threw out claims by Fiat that the man's alleged porn habit had "breached his relationship of trust with his employer" and was "incompatible" with his job.

The worker had argued that his porn viewing was limited to merely "catching a glimpse" of a film during his lunch break.

Fiat had fired the man from its Termini Imerese plant near Palermo in Sicily after a computer and three porn DVDs were found in his locker.

A court in Termini Imerese ruled against the man in 2010 but the verdict was overturned by Palermo's court of appeal, whose ruling was upheld by the Court of Cassation.