Rielaborato e corredato di note essenziali, è il testo della relazione tenuta al convegno su “I diritti fondamentali in Europa e il diritto privato”, svoltosi all’Università di Roma Tre il 22 aprile 2016, i cui atti sono in via di pubblicazione.

The author deals with the role of fundamental rights in the complex process of transformation of labour law. The peculiar way in which the topic of fundamental rights has entered into the labour law discourse is firstly examined: while private law has recently “discovered” the fundamental rights mainly in connection with the adoption of the European Charter of Fundamental Rights, this cannot be said of labour law, whose encounter with fundamental rights is much earlier, as it dates back to the process of interpretation and implementation of the Italian Constitution. In a sense, labour law didn’t need to theorize the fundamental rights as it was used to conceive itself as fundamental as a whole. Labour lawyers have later addressed the issue in a different perspective when that represented by fundamental rights has become a frontline in the battle to defend labour law from the challenges issued by global economy, mainly in terms of flexibility. In any case, the author doubts that the Constitution can represent a decisive obstacle to the adoption of liberalization labour policies, at least as soon as certain limits won’t overcome (but many labour lawyers think that they have been). Afterwards the article focuses on the European Charter of Fundamental Rights, arguing that despite its great importance for the edification of a socially-oriented European Union, it has not added very much, up to now and with the albeit relevant exception of dismissal, to the number and extension of fundamental rights as resulting from the Italian Constitutional order. In any case, the permanent relevance of the topic, also in view of further advancements, is finally underlined.