Decentralizing Industrial Relations and the Role of Labour Unions and Employee Representatives (Italy)

The study deals with three essential topics: the relationship between labor unions and employee representatives, the shift in collective bargaining from industry or branch towards the company or establishment level, and the role of labor unions or employee representatives in the flexibilization of labor protective regulations. What emerges in the course of the analysis sheds important light on such crucial factors as the following: the political power of labor unions; the extent to which employee representatives can and do protect workers interests; 'single-channel (labor unions only) versus 'double-channel systems; invasion of the 'turf of labor unions by employee representation systems; and inclusion of disadvantageous working conditions in collective agreements or workplace agreements. In the aggregate, the study finds that, although employers are nowhere completely free to modify working conditions unilaterally, they can, abetted by the decline of labor unions and an emphasis on 'flexibilization, make working conditions increasingly dependent on the individual employment contract. In this global context, the supremacy of labor unions is being questioned.