False sick leave and absenteeism investigations in Milan.

Strategic and fraudulent absenteeism not only represents a severe direct economic cost for the company, forced to pay salaries for no work and cover replacement expenses, but also creates a toxic element for the internal work climate. This conduct deeply demotivates honest employees who have to take on the workload of the absent colleague. Often the entrepreneur or the human‑resources manager senses the irregularity of the absence, but encounters the apparently untouchable medical certificate.

The legal and operational reality is profoundly different: the medical certificate does not constitute an impenetrable shield behind which to hide illicit conduct. Arcadia Company supports businesses by providing objective, documentary and indisputable evidence to demonstrate the non‑existence of the pathology or the performance of activities incompatible with a convalescent state, allowing the employer to protect its rights and the efficiency of corporate production.

When illness turns into corporate fraud: case scenarios

An employee absent for health reasons has the specific duty not only to be reachable for follow‑up visits, but also to refrain from any behavior that could prejudice or delay a swift recovery. Arcadia Company’s anti‑absenteeism investigations focus on documenting three major illicit acts:

• Engaging in a second job (double employment): the employee, during the period of paid leave from the company and INPS, performs work for third parties, often off‑the‑books or under unfair‑competition conditions, exploiting time taken from their primary role.
• Clearly incompatible activities: cases where the worker declares severely disabling pathologies (such as severe back pain, anxiety states or major depression) but is identified and filmed while performing intense physical exertion, engaging in sports, carrying out moves, or taking vacations.
• Total simulation of illness: the systematic use of the medical certificate to extend vacation periods, cover absences for purely personal purposes, or prolong weekends and holiday bridges in the absence of a real health impairment.

Why INPS fiscal visits are insufficient to protect the company

Medical checks arranged by INPS take place exclusively within rigid, predictable availability windows that the employee can easily anticipate. Consequently, the "feigned sick" employee can easily evade the control, complying with the obligation to be present at home during the stipulated hours, then leaving to attend to personal activities for the rest of the day or during weekends.

The authorized private investigator, on the contrary, works dynamically and without time constraints, focusing observation precisely on moments when the subject feels safe from institutional checks. The video‑photographic evidence gathered by our field agents depicts the employee’s actual conduct, overcoming in court the presumption of the medical certificate’s validity and demonstrating objective incompatibility with the declared sick state.

Supreme Court of Cassation guidance: Jurisprudence has affirmed the full legitimacy of summary dismissal for an employee who, during sick leave, engages in activities likely to prejudice or delay recovery, violating the fundamental duties of loyalty, fairness and contractual good faith (see Cass. Civile n. 17113).

Arcadia Company’s operational protocol against absenteeism

To ensure that the collected evidence withstands any challenge in labour‑law disputes, Arcadia Company applies a rigorous investigation protocol:

1. Preliminary study and planning: examination of the employee’s work shifts and absence history to identify recurring suspicious patterns.
2. Dynamic observation and tailing: discreet monitoring of the subject’s movements and activities outside the fiscal availability windows, using professional investigators.
3. Multimedia evidential crystallization: production of ultra‑high‑resolution video and photographs with certified date‑time stamps (digital evidence chain of custody).
4. Concluding forensic report: drafting a detailed dossier that the company’s legal counsel can use directly in court to justify dismissal for just cause.