Il presente contributo è destinato agli Scritti dedicati a Carlo Cester.

The paper analyses the criteria for measuring the representation of employers’ associations and their assessment. The problem has arisen recently due to the greater fragmentation of employers’ associations and the coexistence of different collective agreements covering the same professional group. These factors have led to problems in the functioning of the industrial relations system and of the regulatory system itself: indeed, many legislative rules refer to collective agreements stipulated by the comparatively most representative trade union and employer organisations.