In corso di pubblicazione come Prefazione a un volume sul Welfare aziendale (Editore Wolter Kluwer 2016).

The essay analyses the evolution and the present contents of the different forms of private welfare, namely funds for supplementary pensions and for medical care,and various kinds of flexible benefits (grants for education and professional training, care services to employees and their families,support to tourism .sport and leisure activities , initiatives to promote work life balance etc.).
These benefits are meant to complement and not to substitute public welfare,but the factual evidence is so far uncertain.The author gives notice of the positions of the social parties including the trade unions ,which have become favorable to negotiate and to expand this private welfare because it has proved beneficial both to firm productivity and to employees wellness.
Recent legislation is analysed which has favored with tax incentives the negotiation of these forms of private welfare so as to make them more convenient than money wages.Some open questions are also explored, in particular how to extend these benefits to atypical workers and to small firms.
Finally the author analysed the implication of the development of welfare benefits on the contents of the employment relationship and the conditions for the successful implementation of private welfare plans ,including the involvement of employees and of other stakeholders.