The paper will be published in Mironi Moti and Schlachter Monika (eds.), Regulating Strikes in Essential Services – a Comparative Law in Action Perspective, Kluwer (forthcoming).

This paper aims on the one sinde at describing the Italian regulation of strike in essential services in the framework of the Italian industrial relations. On the other side the paper focuses on the main issues that the CGSSE (the Italian Authority that supervise on the application of the rules on strike in the essential services) has been facing in recent times trying to balance the fundamental freedom to strike with users’ fundamental rights. The paper eventually discusses how the higher Courts’ interpretation of the freedom to strike seems to limit the possibility to restrict the workers legitimation to strike thus opposing practical solutions that could enhance users’ rights.