Employment & Pensions

Introduction Italy, as is well known, is the only OECD country where wages are falling rather than rising, while the cost of living is rising. It is also one of a few EU countries without a minimum wage law.121 Member States have specific minimum wage laws, while in 6 others (Italy, Denmark, Cyprus, Austria, Finland and Sweden), the minimum wage is set by collective bargaining. footnoteA bill on minimum wage is currently before the Italian parliament, but it does not specify how much the minimum wage should be. According to a study, 2Report of the Clean Clothes Campaign, 2024, available at https://www. abitipuliti. org/wp-con­tent/up­loads/2022/06/Salari­od­ig­nitoso_ag­giorna­mento2024. pdf https://www. abitipuliti. org/wp-con­tent/up­loads/2022/06/Salari­od­ig­nitoso_ag­giorna­mento2024. pdffootnote the amount should be EUR 11.50 per hour of work. To date, the minimum wage has been determined by collective agreements (the National Collective Bargaining Agreements, NCBA for short). Recently, however, this principle has been challenged in part by the Supreme Court, which intervened by recalling that selecting an NCBA is not sufficient to ensure compliance with the principles of “remuneration proportionate to the quantity and quality of work” and “sufficient to ensure the worker and his or her family a free and dignified existence” set out in article 36 of the constitution. In fact, the Supreme Court has recently partially overturned its own historical orientation, stating that where the NCBA adopted stipulates minimum wages that are too low, the judge must assess the wages provided for by other collective agreements in related sectors or refer to other criteria, such as the ISTAT index (Italian Statistics Institute) or the value of the unemployment allowance (the so-called NASpI).3Italian Supreme Court ruling no. 28320 of 10 October 2023. footnoteIs the role of collective bargaining for wage determination in crisis? That is a complex topic for another venue, but here it is necessary to remind companies that there are more than 992 collective bargaining agreements filed with CNEL (the National Council for Economy and Labour). 417° Report periodico dei Contratti Collettivi Nazionali di Lavoro vigenti depositati nell'Archivio CNEL (17th Periodic Report of National Collective Labour Agreements in force deposited in the CNEL archives), CNEL, 2023, available at https://www. cnel. it/Portals/0/CNEL/Re­ports/CCNL/17_re­port_CCNL_vi­gen­ti_gi­ugno_2023. pdf?ver=2023-07-11-131505-757ht­tps://www. cnel. it/Portals/0/CNEL/Re­ports/CCNL/17_re­port_CCNL_vi­gen­ti_gi­ugno_2023. pdf?ver=2023-07-11-131505-757foot­note On the one hand, the choice of NCBA is therefore a very difficult and delicate operation. On the other hand, it is very difficult to counter the “dumping contract” phenomenon (and this difficulty may help to understand the rationale behind the Supreme Court’s latest decisions).

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