Abstract

The essay takes the European Court of Justice recent decision on the Albany case as a starting point for discussing the issue of the possible conflict between the principle of collective bargaining of working conditions and the freedom of competition safeguard in Community and Italian law. The Author suggests that the principle of collective bargaining widely asserted itself, both in national and in I.L.O.'s international systems, as leading instrument for correcting the typical distortions of the original labour market, due to structural monopsony situations. EU labour policy - principally aimed at correcting workers' information, training and mobility faults - seems, on the contrary, the answer to problems raised by dynamic monopsony situations, which are typical of developed labour markets. It is therefore possible to account for the lack, in EU law, of a collective bargaining safeguard principle bearing constitutional rank, as well as the need to balance coalition and collective bargaining freedom with the principle of free competition. Some possible balancing criteria are suggested in the last paragraph, where the author particularly emphasizes the fact that within this subject juridical considerations should also take into account the economic perspective.