The Italian Labour Market after the Biagi Reform

This paper examines the reasons for the Biagi Reform, and identifies the low levels of labour market participation and the extensive hidden economy in Italy as key factors. With a focus on the objectives of the European Employment Strategy, the Biagi reform, first outlined by Marco Biagi in the White Paper on the Labour Market in October 2001 and enacted by means of Legislative Decree No. 276/2003 and subsequent decrees, aims to raise employment levels, increase the number of workers in stable employment, and promote labour market access for disadvantaged groups. The principle of subsidiarity leads to the allocation of certain tasks to the Regions and to collective bargaining, while maintaining the unitary structure of the reform, also for the purposes of creating the conditions for consolidated legislation in the form of a Work Statute. The paper provides a survey of the implementation of the reform so far, including the recent ruling by the Constitutional Court upholding the principles of the reform, and argues that a proper assessment will only be possible in a longer time frame, but that initial results are indicative of an increase in the level of stable employment.