La protezione sociale del lavoro come tema delle relazioni industriali

The relationship between the introduction and provision of social protection - or welfare - and the dynamics of industrial relations is quite intricate. The article offers a preliminary investigation of the different ways in which at different levels issues related to welfare programmes entered the rhetoric and practice of industrial relations. The passage from a phase of "competence specialization" to a phase of rupture and crisis of the previous equilibrium is discussed. In the former, a clear division of competences between the domain of the state - responsible for welfare provision - and of the social partners - responsible for the negotiation of labour terms and conditions - predominated in the strategies and practices of industrial relations. In the latter, the system of competences and tasks assigned the different actors started to become uncertain and was somewhat reshuffled, while welfare related issues invaded and permeated the public discourse of industrial relations. Thus, the modes of action and the levels at which the social partners and other actors different from the central state strive to extend and integrate existing welfare state programmes, or take the initiative to introduce new ones where inexistent, greatly increased.