Strike in the Essential Services: Italy. WP CSDLE “Massimo D’Antona”.INT – 142/2018

Topo, Adriana (2018) Strike in the Essential Services: Italy. WP CSDLE “Massimo D’Antona”.INT – 142/2018. [Working Paper]

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Abstract

The Constitution enacted in 1948 after a long dictatorship under Benito Mussolini, the Prime Minister who came to power in 19221, is the foundation of the Italian legal system. The Constitution supports a republican form of government, in compliance with the rejection of the monarchic regime after a referendum held in 1948. The Constitution confers the sovereignty to Parliament. The President of the Republic has powers aimed at guaranteeing the balance between the constitutional bodies. Notably, the Italian Constitution does not only regulate civic and political liberties and political institutions but also economic and social rights. Labour is at the core of the constitutional chart. Labour is mentioned in the opening of the Constitution, where Art. 1 states that ‘Italy is a democratic republic founded on labour’. Art. 4 recognises the right to work for all citizens. Interrelated with the right to work is the duty for citizens to cooperate to the material and moral progress of the society. The right to work has therefore a fundamental value in the constitutional political project, which supports strategies aimed at protecting employees and workers whether under a subordinate or independent contract. The Titolo III of the Constitution details the basic protection for labour in few Articles. Courts have applied these Articles without the mediation of specific statutes in many occasions. One can find a very important example of the straight application by Courts of constitutional labour principles in the matter of remuneration. On the basis of Art. 36 of the Constitution, the remuneration ought to be proportional to the quantity and also to the quality of the work performed. It is worth noting that Italy has not yet adopted a statute that details what is the minimum wage in every sector. As a consequence it had seemed problematic for an employee to sue an employer in Court in order to challenge a contractual agreement setting a wage apparently unfair. Civil Courts have nevertheless overcome the absence of legislation on minimum wage retrieving Art. 2099 of the Civil Code adopted in 1942 and clearly inspired by the fascist ideology on labour.

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