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Labour Law and Industrial Relations in Recessionary Times.
Dear Friends and Readers, We are pleased to announce the forthcoming publication of Labour Law and Industrial Relations in Recessionary Times. The Italian Labour Relations in a Global Economy, the new issue of the ADAPT Labour Studies Book-series, edited by Michele Tiraboschi and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. The present volume includes a number of papers written in English and published in the last fifteen years in which the Italian labour market underwent many changes. The intent here is to provide the international readership with a frame of reference - in both conceptual and legal terms - that helps to appreciate current Italian Labour Law. In the last fifteen years, and as a result of the passing of the Treu Reform (1997) and the Biagi Reform (2001-2003), Italian Labour Law has undergone a substantial overhaul. The reform process was a fragmentary and turbulent one and was marked by sudden changes of direction and social turmoil, which brought about the assassination of Prof Marco Biagi, immediately after the presentation of the White Paper on the Labour Market that he drafted. The fact that today Italian Labour Law is faced with much uncertainty should come as no surprise, as labour legislation is devoid of an underlying approach and fails to keep up with real production processes. Compounding the picture is the crisis of the industrial relations system at a national level. The main problem is that the development of Italian Labour Law was uncontrolled and based on compromises. Indeed, the parties to the employment relationship are not satisfied with the watered-down and fragmentary nature of labour legislation. Workers feel more insecure and precarious. Employers reckon that the regulation of the employment relationship is not in line with the challenges posed by globalization and the emerging markets. In the Author's view, some of the major issues in the recent reforms of labour laws in Italy are to be explained by the nature of the debate among lawmakers and trade unions, which is still parochial and self-referential. This is what emerges - yet partly - from the debate among legal scholars, which is still dominated by excessive attention to the formal aspects of the legal process resulting from high levels of state regulation, for central government still plays a major role in regulating the employment relationship. The real goal of this volume is to contribute to moving beyond the self-referential nature of the Italian debate on the reform of labour laws. This would supply the reform process of the Italian labour market with an international and comparative dimension which - in accordance with the programmatic approach of Marco Biagi—should also feed the debate at a national level. Roberta Caragnano (@Roby_Caragnano) Francesca Sperotti (@Fsperotti) |
