Abstract

The essay analyses the decision of the Corte costituzionale about the art. 19 Statuto dei lavoratori in an evolutionary perspective, stressing that its jurisprudence always stated the legitimacy of that article because of the rationality of the prerogative exercised by the unions holding peculiar representative characteristics, also after the referendum that produced an incisive change in the structure of the art. 19, entitling only the unions signatories of collective agreements. The ambiguity of this rule - well showed by the recent Fiat dispute - is now faced in the 231/13 court's judgment that is correct in the light of unions freedom principle. It is unable, on the other hand, to give a definitive solution to the problems originated by the weaving between unions rights and collective bargain, as in the new art. 19. The author focuses on the re-emerging principle of representativeness based on the real consensus and the effect of the recent "Protocollo intersindacale" of May 2013, discussing also the possibility of a new bill.