Abstract

The Author analyzes the past and present outline of the "Statuto dei lavoratori". He believes that most of the rights recognizes by the Act of 1970 are now assimilated by the evolution of the Italian and European labour law. With reference to the critics about the collective soul of the "Statuto" the Author thinks that the recent economic and financial crisis has incremented the necessity of legal rules to support social cohesion and built a barrier against destructuring and individualization of labour relations. The Author considers still interesting the perspective of a new series of rules on the different work relationships, which should face two core aspects on Italian labour law: a) a clear and modern system of collective bargaining; b) a wider space for an individual autonomy embedded in the right context. For both the aspects, the main unsolved theoretical and practical problems re concisely analyzed by underlining that a "brave" legislator could face them. In particular the Italian legislator should set an organic framework of rules for the autonomous regulation, both the collective and the individual one, and for recovering the values protected by the "Statuto" that certainly are more solid than most of the masks the future of labour law seems to wear.