Work performance and organisational flexibility: at the core of the employment contract

The legal problems caused on work conditions by the technological and economic changes have often been viewed exclusively from an external perspective: the labour market is analysed by considering the different contractual models used to exchange work and remuneration from a point of view that stays outside the boundaries of the employment relationship. Nevertheless, the very same factors, which shape the labour market into different sub-markets that relate to different non-standard forms of work, influence the employment relationship itself. In this context, the article addresses the latest innovations of the Italian legal system in the discipline of the employer’s prerogative to unilaterally amend the employment contract. The aim is to provide evidence that subordination is not inconsistent with the changes that are deeply influencing our society and ways of living and work.