In corso di pubblicazione su Diritto delle Relazioni Industriali.

Aim of this essay is to put within the wider perspective of the decentralisation of labour law and industrial relations the so named “FIAT case”, i.e. the fact that a multinatio al company has decided to force the national industrial relations system in order to establish its own organisation based employment relations system. As well known, Italian labour law and industrial relations are (or better were) characterised by uniform legal and collective bargaining provisions aimed to regulate labour relations nationwide. The Italian legislator, has taken the opportunity of the “FIAT case” to develop an optional legal framework which allow social partners to build up their own labour law and industrial relation system at company or at local level. In doing so, they can also derogate, in peius, legal and contractual uniform provisions. This can be hardly considered to be in line with the Italian Constitution advocating for the uniform regulation of employment conditions at national level and for the enhancement of economic, social and territorial cohesion (art. 117 and 120).