Abstract

The paper outlines the Fornero Reform of the Italian labor market, currently under discussion in Parliament. The author argues that said Reform tackles labor market segmentation and restores equity in the level of employment protection, limiting excessive use of atypical contracts, and at the same time changing some individual dismissal rules provided (for typical work contracts) by the famous Article 18 of the Statute of Workers' Rights. Moreover, the Reform redesigns the unemployment protection regime and the active labor policies in order to make them more fit for the current structure of labor market. As a whole, although it entails some legal complications, the Reform is positively aimed at correcting some unbalances of the Italian labor market. However, as labor market regulation can hardly claim to be based on a perfect predictability of cause/effect mechanisms, the reform's effects will have to be carefully monitored.