Employer membership and collective bargaining in Italy: empirical evidence from an INAPP survey

Abstract

Decentralization of collective bargaining is considered a key element to introduce innovations and changes work’s organization. Since 2011, European institutions too have promoted the dissemination of collective agreements more sensitive to corporate market conditions.

What is the role of employer’s associations in this context?

The article intends to provide an analysis in this regard, using data from the INAPP-RIL survey conducted on a sample of about 26,000 Italian firms. After studying the trend of membership rates and membership density over time, as well as the determinants that influence membership, the article focuses on the latter's influence on the dissemination and coverage of collective cross-sector bargaining.

On the basis of the main evidence contained in the descriptive analyses, it may seemingly be stated that the barycentre of the Italian collective bargaining system - the «National Collective Labour Agreement» - has not been affected by the European, legislative and social partners “multilevel” drive in favour of its decentralisation.

Indeed the multi-employer bargaining has continued to be applied outside of an association membership logic: there has been an increase in the share of firms that state to apply a sectoral agreement spontaneously, without joining an Employers’ Association. The Employers’ Association fragmentation is a context which conceals the proliferation of the so called Pirate Agreements, that is a system characterised by a self-opting out of the collective agreement.

At the same time, and perhaps for the same reasons, second-level bargaining is at a standstill. In fact, traditional motivations related to competitiveness continue to make it preferable for small and medium sized firms to maintain the centrality of the national sectoral collective agreement.