Trade Unions and Employment Relations in Italy during the Economic Crisis

Regalia, Ida; Regini, Marino

doi:10.1080/13608746.2018.1430608

Cited by 45 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…This fits with the more general analysis of the impact of the crisis on the role of trade unions by Regalia and Regini (2018), who argue that the impact of a prolonged recession did not take the anticipated form of a further relentless advancement of the neo-liberal agenda through a weakening of the social and political influence of trade unions, national collective bargaining and social dialogue. While, it is true, this had characterised the decade before the crisis, there was no acceleration of these trends after 2008, and if anything they witnessed a reversal.…”

Section: Economic Social and Cultural Change In The Shadow Of Austeritysupporting

confidence: 83%

Italian Politics in an Era of Recession: The End of Bipolarism?

Bull¹,

Pasquino²

2018

South European Society and Politics

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Italian politics have undergone momentous change in the 2007-2017 decade under the impact of the eurozone crisis, whose peak in 2011-2013 could be equated to the earlier watershed years of 1992-1994. The lasting impact of the upheaval in Italian politics in the early 1990s could still be felt in the decade of economic recession, but there were also new challenges prompted by a crisis that had its roots in international financial contagion and which unravelled under the shadow of both recession and austerity. The changes were of an economic, social, cultural, institutional, policy-oriented and political nature. If one central quintessentially political theme stands out by the end of this decade it is the apparent exhaustion of the quest for bipolarisation that was initiated in the early 1990s.

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Section: Economic Social and Cultural Change In The Shadow Of Austeritysupporting

confidence: 83%

Italian Politics in an Era of Recession: The End of Bipolarism?

Bull¹,

Pasquino²

2018

South European Society and Politics

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“…After these episodes, Southern European governments abstained from any other form of unilateral intervention in the wage-setting realm. This corroborates the view that the urgent need to ease pressure on bond markets, coupled with a partisan preference for decentralization by conservative parties, might be more decisive than unions' weakness in explaining government's unilateralism (Cioffi & Dubin, 2016;Picot & Tassinari, 2017;Regalia & Regini, 2018). Second, and relatedly, employers' associations tried to limit the impact of these unilateral reforms by engaging in bipartite dialogue with the unions (Colombo & Regalia, 2016a).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 61%

“…During the Eurozone crisis, Southern states found themselves in a similar situation, with weak-grand coalition or technocraticgovernments called upon to implement unpopular austerity measures (Armingeon & Baccaro, 2012). However, unlike in the 1990s, governments did not rely on tripartite dialogue to get these reforms through, instead consulting social partners in a nonbinding manner when not acting unilaterally (Culpepper & Regan, 2014;Regalia & Regini, 2018). According to Culpepper and Regan, this rejection of tripartite social dialogue is ultimately due to the fact that governments no longer consider trade unions as credible partners due to their loss of membership and legitimacy.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Business Against Markets: Employer Resistance to Collective Bargaining Liberalization During the Eurozone Crisis

Bulfone

Afonso

2019

Comparative Political Studies

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Employer organizations have been presented as strong promoters of the liberalization of industrial relations in Europe. This article, in contrast, argues that the preferences of employers vis-à-vis liberalization are heterogeneous and documents how employer organizations in Spain, Italy, and Portugal have resisted state-led reforms to liberalize collective bargaining during the Euro crisis. It shows that the dominance of small firms in the economies of these countries make employer organizations supportive of selective aspects of sectoral bargaining and state regulation. Encompassing sectoral bargaining is important for small firms for three reasons: it limits industrial conflict, reduces transaction costs related to wage-bargaining, and ensures that member firms are not undercut by rivals offering lower wages and employment conditions. Furthermore, the maintenance of sectoral bargaining and its extension to whole sectors by the state is a matter of survival for employer organizations. The article presents rationales for employer opposition to liberalization that differ from the varieties of capitalism approach.

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“…Reforms pushed by the EU triggered processes of decentralisation and liberalisation (Guardiancich, 2019) that were only partly compensated by some resilience of social partners (trade union density is stable at around 34%) and collective forms of regulation (collective bargaining coverage is still very high, at 97%) (Pedersini, 2020). At the same time, Italian policymakers have had to cope with low levels of economic growth and high levels of public debt eventually leading them to focus on how to reduce public expenditure and increase business productivity (Regalia and Regini, 2018). Private initiatives favouring these goals were particularly appreciated.…”

Section: Framing the Recent Diffusion Of Company Welfare In Italymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Trade unions came late to discussions about company welfare, being initially excluded from policymaking and in a rather delicate position. In fact, although external constraints following the crisis translated into a limited capacity to call for wage increases, trade unions still needed to deliver results to existing members and attract new ones (Regalia and Regini, 2018). According to its proponents, company welfare provisions tied to productivity outline a solution for trade unions, inasmuch workers remain free to opt for converting a productivity bonus into a cash lump sum (subject to taxation) or to have it in the form of welfare benefits (tax-free) (Leonardi, 2018).…”

Section: Trade Unions and Company Welfarementioning

confidence: 99%

Framing work and welfare: Insights from the growing relevance of company welfare in Italy

Gasparri

2020

Journal of Industrial Relations

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This article applies the concept of frames of reference to contemporary work and welfare dynamics by focusing on the growing relevance of company welfare in Italy after the 2008 crisis. The analysis considers how this occurred along three phases: in the first, a path-breaking case, Luxottica, demonstrates the potential of company welfare; then, Renzi’s government promotes company welfare through tax breaks; finally, trade unions try to affect the diffusion of company welfare, displaying contrasting ideologies as well as pragmatic joint solutions in the process. Overall, two contiguous sub-frames – consultative unitarism and collaborative pluralism – offer the mainstream justification to the events and the policy debate around them, a debate in which the industrial relations scholarship played a key role. However, a critical interpretation is present too, suggesting that the relevance of company welfare is driven by the mobilisation of a political and economic elite and results in few cases of positive employment relations alongside broad social and economic imbalances.

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Trade Unions and Employment Relations in Italy during the Economic Crisis

Cited by 45 publications

References 19 publications

Italian Politics in an Era of Recession: The End of Bipolarism?

Italian Politics in an Era of Recession: The End of Bipolarism?

Business Against Markets: Employer Resistance to Collective Bargaining Liberalization During the Eurozone Crisis

Framing work and welfare: Insights from the growing relevance of company welfare in Italy

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