Accordi FIAT, clausola di pace sindacale e limiti al diritto di sciopero = FIAT agreements, union peace clause and limits to the right to strike. WP C.S.D.L.E. "Massimo D'Antona" .IT - 117/2011

The article explores two innovative contractual clauses introduced in the collective agreements signed between June and December 2010 for employees of Fiat (Pomigliano-NA) and Mirafiori (TO), where there has been the introduction of restrictions on the right of workers to strike. In particular, the first clause takes care of Trade union and illegitimate the consequent inability of the Company to claim rights or to exercise the powers under the Agreement establishing penalties against union signatory. The second clause, instead, deals with the behaviour of individual workers, having as result disciplinary sanctions. Both terms however, establish the indivisibility of all terms of the collective agreement and leave the disciplinary hypothesis in, by workers in violation of the obligation undertaken by trade unions (alias, in violation of the union peace clause). The issue is complex and difficult for two reasons: -the first one is a union reason, because the agreements were not signed by FIOM-CGIL union (which represents the majority among the union workers) even if they have passed the scrutiny of the referendum among the workers concerned. -The second question is purely legal since in Italy the introduction of limits on the right to strike of the individual worker, using the clauses of collective agreements, is subject to conflicting interpretation solutions, notwithstanding the provisions of article 40 of the Constitution. The analysis proposed in the article, aims to demonstrate the limits of the strike introduced by the terms of the agreements in question, even when involving the individual worker effects, not on the level of the individual contract and disciplinary sanctions, but only on trade unions. The latter, in fact are responsible for the behaviour of individual workers in place in breach of the union peace clause