Italian Volleyball Club Sues Player For Contract Breach Over Pregnancy

CREDIT: Twitter

Italian Volleyball Club Sues Player For Contract Breach Over Pregnancy.

LARA LUGLI, a former volleyball player for Volley Maniago Pordenone, has been sued for damages by her own club after being fired for becoming pregnant. The events date back to March 2019 when the athlete announced that she was going to be a mother.

The volleyball team, which plays in Serie B1 (the Italian Second Division), fired her immediately upon hearing the news. In addition, the club has repeatedly refused to pay the 41-year-old a month’s salary that they had pending before the announcement – claiming that she failed to tell them she was planning to have a baby when she signed a contract to play for the club during the 2018-19 volleyball season.

Lara, who was captain of the team, never received the salary for the games she played in February before the announcement – €2,500 (£2,140). Sadly, in April 2019, the athlete miscarried and told the club she had lost the child.

However, the club refused to pay and instead took legal action against Lugli, accusing her of not revealing her plans to have a child in an attempt to extract a higher salary.

In an extraordinary court document shared by Lugli on Facebook, the club accused her of “disproportionately selling her experience” and “hiding her desire to be a mother”.

Pordenone argued that her choice had led the team to perform badly for the rest of the season and, as a result, the squad had lost sponsorship money.

Speaking to the Guardian, Lugli said: “When I read the legal document, I was so angry.

“I’ve been playing volleyball for 25 years and had given it everything – they knew this.

“They said a 38-year-old woman should have known whether she wanted to have a baby and therefore should have said something. Not only did they call into question my professionalism but they are comparing pregnancy to illicit and malicious conduct – it’s a very serious thing.”

The National Association of Athletes (ASSIST), dedicated to defending the rights of athletes, said: “Although she is not a world-famous player, this cannot be a precedent for future athletes who find themselves in this situation because a pregnant woman cannot harm anyone and should not have to compensate anyone.”

An intervention from the Italian Prime Minister, Mario Draghi, and the president of the National Olympic Committee (CONI), Giovanni Malagó, has already been requested due to the high nature of the scandal.

The Italian senate speaker, Maria Elisabetta Alberti Casellati, described the case as “violence against women”, while Luigi Di Maio, the foreign minister, wrote on Facebook: “To think that a woman today is forced to choose between a child and her career is no longer tolerable.” Giovanni Malagò, the head of the Italian National Olympic Committee, also expressed his “solidarity” with Lugli.

Franco Rossato, the head of Volley Maniago Pordenone, told the Italian press that the club had moved to defend itself after Lugli “filed an order with us to pay [the back salary]”.

“Suddenly, many months later [after agreeing to end the contract by mutual consent], we received a message from her lawyer for the presumed entitlement,” Rossato said. “Only then did we object and so activated the clauses of the contract.”


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Written by

Matthew Roscoe

Originally from the UK, Matthew is based on the Costa Blanca and is a web reporter for The Euro Weekly News covering international and Spanish national news. Got a news story you want to share? Then get in touch at editorial@euroweeklynews.com.

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