Abstract

The paper investigates how German and Italian faith-based providers and, in particular, Christian-based providers are responding to marketisation and an increasing shortage of labour in the field of long-term care (LTC) services, by questioning their own traditional labour regulations. In Germany, the paper focuses on how and why the regional branches of the main national Protestant and Catholic providers were willing to sign regional collective labour agreements in Hessen and Bremen, to secure better wages and working conditions. This was in contrast with the traditional «third way» in German labour law, according to which Christian providers do not sign collective labour agreements, while offering employment contracts based on consensus-oriented guidelines. In Italy, where Christian-based providers sign their own collective agreements within a context of high fragmentation in employment relations, the article analyses the coordination process, implemented by the main Christian-based and other non-profit employers in 2022-2023, in order to homogenise their collective agreements. After having set the issue in a theoretical framework, a critical analysis of the relevant documents, the elaboration of available data and qualitative semi-structured interviews show that there is a gradual and partial homogenisation in employment relations between religious and non-religious private providers in both countries. This trend is taking place in a context of transformation, which is affected not only by economic reasons but also by the essential values of religious providers