Abstract

The aim of this contribution is to analyse labour policy, understood as the set of political-economic, regulatory, and case-law guidelines, adopted by the European Union (EU) over the 30-year timespan from the approval of the Maastricht Treaty to date. Additionally, it provides a descriptive analysis of the trends in employment, wages, and productivity concerning the Italian case. Reflecting the international debate, the article proposes an analysis based on a collection of documents regarding European action within the three identified guidelines. In the empirical section, Italian trends are examined concerning employment – compared with Germany and Spain as regards atypical work –, average wages, labour productivity, labour costs, and labour share. The analysis shows that, on the one hand, the EU has developed its labour policy in accordance with the concept of flexibility primarily derived from neoclassical theory, and, on the other hand, in Italy, flexibilisation has increased the incidence of atypical work, but real wages have not followed the productivity trend. Consequently, the rise in labour costs has not translated into an increase in the labour share.