Law pressure on the industrial relation system: the Italian case

In response to employers’ demands to be granted a greater flexibility in the employment relationship and in the organization of work, and in the light of specific recommendations of European institutions, the Italian legislation seems to be aiming for a corporatization of industrial relations and collective bargaining. The Author analyzes the different types of pressure set by specific statutory provisions, from the approach of the 2011 proximity bargaining to the regulation on contribution and tax incentives for performance-based wages and occupational welfare measures in second-level collective bargaining. It is however noted that, in the Italian industrial relation context, which faces increasing fragmentation and an enduring limited development of company collective relations and bargaining, these provisions may not help contractual innovation and effective growth, while, on the contrary, they may accelerate its centrifugal forces.