Il diritto alla retribuzione adeguata fra Costituzione, mercato ed emergenza economica = The right to adequate remuneration between the Constitution, the market and the economic emergency. WP C.S.D.L.E. “Massimo D’Antona”.IT – 163/2012

Ricci, Giancarlo. (2012) Il diritto alla retribuzione adeguata fra Costituzione, mercato ed emergenza economica = The right to adequate remuneration between the Constitution, the market and the economic emergency. WP C.S.D.L.E. “Massimo D’Antona”.IT – 163/2012. [Policy Paper]

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Abstract

The right to a fair wage (art. 36, section 1, Italian Constitution) is a pillar of the “constitutional” theory, assuming an axiological and prescriptive function into the section of fundamental social rights. Moreover, lacking a minimum wage legislation, it has played, in Italy, an historical role in protecting those workers not directly covered from national collective agreement. The essay analysis how the right to a fair wage assumed, in a favourable economic context, an “independent variable” meaning, then changing in a “dependent” one in presence of deep crisis’ trends. In Italy, the phenomenon has had a judicial validation in Eighties and Nineties: according to Constitutional Court, a law which reduces wage standard, in a context of economic and financial crisis, is in keeping with art. 36, section 1, if the measure is adequate, proportionate and limited. Nowadays, these relevant juridical issues returns to be of topical interest in a context of severe crisis’ trend. In fact, the labour reforms, approved in many European States and reducing wages’ levels, is destined for stimulating a new important “season” of judicial activism.

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