Recent Changes in the Italian Labour Law

Labour relations in Italy are regulated by a complex series of normative provisions and autonomous private bargaining, both at a collective and an individual level. With regard to the normative provisions, a distinction must be made between the national and the supranational level. The national sources are the Constitution as the basic law of the State, Acts of Parliament, regional laws, and customary use and practice. With regard to the supranational provisions it is important to distinguish between international and European Union (EU) sources. EU measures can have a direct effect on the Italian system, on the basis of the limitation of sovereignty and the attribution of competences. The international sources, on the other hand, can have juridical effects only if national legislation has been enacted to implement the relevant provisions. This is the case, in particular, of the Recommendations and Conventions of the International Labour Organisation (ILO). EU law prevails not only over national provisions previously enacted, but also over those enacted at a later date. As a result the primacy of EU law is not simply a supplementary matter in judicial decisions, but in the light of the criterion of the attribution of competences among concurrent systems, EU law prevails in all those matters laid down in the European Community treaties. In determining the principles to be applied in a specific case, the national courts are obliged to disregard any national provisions that are in contrast with the norms deriving from EU law. With regard to matters that are not within its exclusive competence, the European Community intervenes on the basis of the principle of subsidiarity, “only if and insofar as the objectives of the intended action cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States, either at central level or at regional and local level, but can rather, by reason of the scale or effects of the proposed action, be better achieved at Union level.” (Draft Treaty establishing a European Constitution, Title III, Article 9, http://europa.eu.int/futurum/constitution/part1/title3/index_en. htm).