Abstract

When it comes to the employment protection, the Italian Statuto dei lavoratori of 1970 was and, for many workers in the country, still is a landmark piece of legislation, which is said to have finally “broughtµ the 1948 Constitution to the workplaces. However, the spread of precarious forms of employment may end up in circumventing the historic labour legislation. The author suggests that this is the case with the “job on callµ, which was introduced by the legislative decree no. 276/2003 and has growth significantly in the labour market in recent years. Although it would be unthinkable for our society to go back to the world of 1970, the underlying philosophy of the Statuto dei lavoratori can help to rebuild a more just labour law, as long as we recognize that (labour) rights do have costs and that in many cases consumers may be required to pay higher prices in order to sustain such rights.