Abstract

The essay analyzes the recent judgments of the Constitutional Court n. 51 and n. 178 of 2015, with the aim to shed light over the elements of discontinuity with the constitutional case law. The rulings concur to redefine the framework of constitutional principles, which refer to the relationship between art. 39 and art. 36 of the Constitution, in its double dimension, static (that is, related to the use of the collective agreement as a «source» for the definition of minimum wages) and dynamic (i.e. related to the exercise of the collective autonomy as an instrument for increasing the level of remuneration over time). They do so during the age of austerity policies, thus establishing principles to protect collective autonomy, which those policies must necessarily take into account.