In corso di pubblicazione sul n. 3/2015 della Rivista Aedon. Rivista di arti e diritto online

The enjoyment of cultural heritage as an essential public service: the law decree 20 September 2015, no. 146
Having briefly summarized the collective actions that took place in Rome and Pompei during the summer of 2015, the paper analyzes the issues concerned with the adoption of the law decree no. 146/2015, with which the Italian Government added also the “opening to public of museums and culture places” to the list of essential public services. At first the feasible and debated problems of constitutionality are examined. Then the essay aims to highlight the new features of the regulatory framework compared with that adopted by social partners: this particularly with regard to the scope of application of the new regulation, to the definition of essential public services to be guaranteed in the occasion of strikes, to the recourse to compulsory mobilization, and to the applicable sanctions in case non-compliance to the rules. Eventually the essay examines the controversial notion of collective conflict, to which it is debated whether workers’ meetings could be included, an issue not considered by the legislator while regulating strikes in essential public services.