La questione salariale: legislazione sui minimi e contrattazione collettiva = The wage issue: minimum legislation and collective bargaining. WP C.S.D.L.E. “Massimo D’Antona”.IT – 386/2019

The paper presents some critical issues concerning the Italian wage system: namely the pros and cons of a possible introduction of legal minimum wage, the evolution of payment by results and the various forms of bargained welfare benefits. The first part analyses the international debate on legal minimum wages,the resistance of Italian social parties to accept a legal intervention on wages, and presents the motives which suggest the introduction also in Italy of an experimental form of legal minimum wage. The paper discuss the impact of a possible legal minimum wage on the Italian Court interpretation of art 36 of the constitution on fair wages and on the possible extension erga omnes of the wage part of collective agreements. The second part of the essay analyses the weaknesses of the Italian collective bargaining system ,in particular the loose coordination among the centralised and decentralised levels of bargaining,and argues for a legal intervention aimed at defining the criteria of representativeness of the social parties. Finally it presents possible solutions on how to improve the Coordination between centralised and decentralised collective agreements and on the best ways to promote a virtuous use of the recent innovations in decentralised agreements (payment by results and welfare benefits)