Industrial action and disputes in Italy

The right to strike is enshrined in Article 40 of the Italian Constitution, which entered into force in 1948. Indeed, the Workers’ Statute does not intervene directly in the matter of strikes, but it does include strikes among the protected rights concerning anti-union conduct by employers under Article 28, and prohibits discrimination based on strikes under Article 15.

In the silence of lawmakers, case law has produced numerous rulings that have removed the limits to the exercise of the right to strike (remnants of the fascist corporative legal system) from the Italian criminal code.

There are numerous regulations in the Italian legal system that prevent the employer from carrying out acts aimed at limiting the right to strike, such as the nullity of dismissal caused by participation in a strike.

The right to strike is considered an ‘individual right exercised collectively’, as the interest pursued by the strike has a collective nature. Two requirements must be met for a strike to be considered lawful: (1) the interruption of the work activity is organised on a collective basis, and is promoted by a trade union or by a non-unionised group of workers to protect the collective interest; and (2) the industrial action takes place on a voluntary basis.

The exercise of the right to strike results in the suspension of the two fundamental obligations of the employment relationship: the employee has the faculty not to perform the work; and the employer is not obliged to pay the employee for working time that was not worked because of their participation in the strike.

With regard to the workers targeted, the following types of strikes can occur in Italy:

• general strike (abstention from work affecting all workers in the country)

• sectoral strike (abstention from work affecting only one economic sector or one category of workers)

• local strike (abstention from work affecting only workers from a certain geographical area)

• company-level strike (abstention from work affecting workers in a specific company)

With regard to strike characteristics, the following types of strikes can occur in Italy:

• ordinary strike (abstention from work)

• white strike (workers, instead of abstaining from work, mindlessly apply the working regulations, causing inconvenience and slowdowns)

• articulated strikes (aimed at altering the functional links between the elements of production, so as to produce maximum damage to the employer with minimum loss of pay for strikers)

• intermittent or ‘hiccup’ strike (involves workers stopping work for short, irregular periods)

• rotating or ‘checkerboard’ strike (different groups of workers or departments within an organisation take turns striking)

With regard to the reasons for striking, the following types of strikes can occur in Italy.

• Ordinary strike (abstention from work for economic/professional purposes).

• Political strike (abstention from work for political purposes). A distinction between a pure political strike and a political-economic strike is necessary. The first pertains to the prevalence of political choices or general political orientations, without a precise economic claim, while the second is aimed at obtaining political interventions that specifically concern the socioeconomic conditions of workers. The Constitutional Court declared the pure political strike legitimate for the first time in its ruling No. 123/1962. According to the court, it is precisely the ‘economic aims’ of the strike that make it possible to differentiate between a purely political strike, as a mere freedom of the worker, and a political-economic strike, as a right of the worker.

• Sympathy strike (abstention from work in solidarity with other groups of workers, with whom there is a commonality of interests, or with an individual worker). Act No. 146/1990 regulates the right to strike in essential public services, irrespective of if they are provided by the public administration or private enterprises. Essential public services are those that ensure constitutionally protected rights (such as the rights to education, health, public safety and mobility) or public order and public interests. They include, for instance, local transport, emergency services, hospitals, the fire service, infrastructure services, final school examinations. The general criteria are that a notice period must be respected when a strike is called and that minimum services must be ensured in the event of a strike in these services, in order to balance the exercise of the right to strike and other protected rights or interests. The minimum services can be established by collective agreements or law. A special national commission for the application of the law on the right to strike in public essential services (Commissione di garanzia dell´attuazione della legge sullo sciopero nei servizi pubblici essenziali) was established.

Communications from the Ministry of Labour and Social Policies regarding self-declared data on strikes are awaited.

The Civil Service Strikes Dashboard is the tool through which the Civil Service, in accordance with the provisions of Law 146/1990, fulfils its obligation to report all information on national strikes in the civil service, including participation data (local and/or regional strikes are excluded).

• Minister for Public Administration: Cruscotto degli scioperi nel pubblico impiego

Collective dispute resolution mechanisms

A labour dispute is defined as collective when it arises from conflict between employer organisations and trade union organisations.

The Directorate-General for Labour Relations and Industrial Relations carries out mediation activities in the event of labour disputes and, in general, in corporate crises of national importance – that is, involving operational and production units located in several regions. In particular, the directorate-general:

• carries out mediation activities for the stipulation and renewal of NCBAs

• is competent to manage the joint examination procedures necessary for the submission – to the Directorate-General for Social Security and Training – of applications for the authorisation of extraordinary wage supplementation treatments for company reorganisation and crises

• is competent to carry out the administrative phase of collective dismissal procedures pursuant to Act No. 223/1991

For more information about collective labour disputes, see Ministry of Labour and Social Policies (undated-a), and for more information about the Directorate-General for Labour Relations and Industrial Relations, see Ministry of Labour and Social Policies (undated-b).

Individual dispute resolution mechanisms

The labour judge, in the Italian judicial system, identifies a specialised section (labour courts) of each ordinary court for the first instance, of each court of appeal for the second instance, and of the Supreme Court of Cassation for the review of legitimacy with jurisdiction to judge in matters related to labour law and social security.

Disputes concerning individual employment relationships, in addition to court decisions, can also be resolved through conciliation: the procedure set out by law provides that decisions may be taken by a conciliation commission chaired by the director of the territorially competent provincial labour directorate and composed of representatives of workers and employers. This dispute resolution instrument was envisaged to alleviate the workload of labour courts and reduce delays in their proceedings.

Furthermore, another quite frequent form of conciliation in practice takes place through the parity conciliation commission provided for in many collective labour agreements. Union and employer representatives participate in this procedure, and the person performing the mediation functions is designated by the trade union to which the employee belongs.

Use of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms

Reporting about how often alternative forms of labour dispute resolution are used compared with labour courts is not possible, as these data are not available.