An Italian train inspector who was fired for issuing too many fines to passengers said his “nightmare is over” after the country’s top court ruled he was unfairly fired.
Francesco Bonanno, 61, was accused of “terrorize” passengers by applying a record number of fines in two years while controlling tickets on the northern routes on the Trenitalia.
The company fired him in 2017 after receiving a flood of complaints from customers unhappy with the fines, which the company argued were issued arbitrarily and for the wrong amount. Bonanno, who lives in Jesolo, near Veneza, fined passengers for various infractions, such as board a train without a ticket, no stamp the dateto or traveling on incorrect routes.
He took legal action and officially returned to work after the Supreme Court said he must be “reinstated” back to the company.
The court described the train boss as someone who worked with “unusual zeal” and was “inflexible”. However, he decided that Bonanno was just doing his job, albeit in a “extremely meticulous”, and did not seek to profit personally.
In an interview with Corriere della Sera, Bonanno, who has been a train inspector for 38 years, denied having been “ruthless”, despite admitting to having issued a record 5.000 fines.
“I'm not a bounty hunter, but at work you need rigor, and I have to make sure every passenger travels with a valid ticket,” Bonanno said. “I am never authoritarian or a bully; the passengers love me. "
His lawyer, Lucio Spampatti, said he has never heard of anyone being fired for working too much. “If you think about it, this story is bizarre. We are talking about an inspector who, upon discovering passengers without a ticket, earned the company more than 200 thousand euros.”
