Italy’s “Industry 4.0” Plan: A labour law analysis

New technologies and productive models lie at the heart of so-called Indus-try 4.0, a concept which has recently entered socio-economic and political discourse in a number of countries. Lately, Italy too has presented an action plan on Industry 4.0 and some operational measures on this issue have al-ready been envisaged in the Budget Law for 2017. Consequently, the aim of this paper is to look at Italy’s Industry 4.0 plan, focusing on consequences arising from labour law. The labour law perspective has been given scant consideration in the public debate, seeing that so far the latter has given pri-ority on technological aspects and on economic resources needed to imple-ment the plan. An approach of this kind enables us to appreciate the major changes that the Industry 4.0 paradigm will bring about in labour markets – either inside or outside companies – and in industrial relations. The idea of labour and that of doing business will also be questioned, leading to the conclusion that labour rules and active policies can also be factors enabling new productive processes. Examining the major challenges posed by Indus-try 4.0 to workers and employers (e.g. the crisis of subordination, the new roles of skills, the risk of technological unemployment, new decentralized and participatory forms of collective bargaining), this paper sets out to iden-tify actions and perspectives to manage current changes, focusing on work-ers rather than on those technologies that will be used to work in the years to come. In the authors’ opinion, this perspective might help raise awareness that labour law is not only tasked with providing protection and resources and with favouring production, but it has important functions in historical and political terms. Therefore, this branch of law is not doomed to be set aside following the demise of Fordism, but it will innovate over time to ena-ble and balance the new productive model underlying Industry 4.0., particu-larly as regards social justice