Labour Market Reforms and Beyond: The Italian Case

The author examines the process of the labour market reform in Italy. The main provisions of the subsequent waves of reform are highlighted, with special emphasis on the reform of dismissal regulations, the role of the standard employment contract in response to labour market dualism, the measures aimed at enhancing functional flexibility and productivity, the growing importance of decentralized collective bargaining and the persistent shortcomings of security measures. The intrinsic limits of these reforms, deriving from their mainly neoliberal inspiration, are then examined. At the same time, it is argued that they have offered a chance for modernization of the labour law approach, which needs to be further developed in a constructive perspective going beyond a mere reaction to neoliberal challenges. An earlier version of this paper was presented by the Author on May 25, 2018, at the workshop “Labour Market Policy and Labour Law Reform: Tensions and Opportunities” organized jointly by Warwick Law School in conjunction with Warwick Business School and the Warwick Network CREW, at the University of Warwick. Double-blind peer review.