The variable geometry of bargaining: implementing unions’ strategies on remote work in Italy

Journal title STUDI ORGANIZZATIVI
Author/s Anne-Iris Romens, Valeria Piro, Francesco E. Iannuzzi
Publishing Year 2022 Issue 2022/1 Language English
Pages 25 P. 129-153 File size 260 KB
DOI 10.3280/SO2022-001006
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

The spreading of remote work in Italy following the Coronavirus pandemic has brought numerous challenges that have prompted trade unions to include this form of work as a matter of collective bargaining. The article aims to study unions’ everyday bargaining practices, by investigating how the main union guide-lines on remote work have been implemented during the pandemic. Based on empirical data collected in Veneto and starting from the perspective of union officials and representatives, the article sheds light on unions’ bargaining practices concerning access to remote work, remote workers’ income, working time, and workloads. The analysis permits us to stress that union practitioners adapt the strategies of their union organisations to the specific sectors and workplaces in which they are embedded, according to the specific needs of the workforce they represent and to how they perceive their own bargaining power. We argue that the different variables - geographical level, sector, previous bargaining experience, unionists' ideological position, perception of their own bargaining power - intersect with each other, producing a variable geometry of bargaining practices with regard to remote work.

Keywords: Bargaining practices, Covid-19, remote work, trade unions.

  1. Burroni L., Carreri D. (2013), Interessi, dimensioni e tutele del lavoro flessibile in Italia. In: Del Colle E. (ed.), Tra flessibilità e precarietà. Roma: Carocci.
  2. Albano C.R., Parisi T., Tirabeni L. (2019), “Gli smart workers tra solitudine e collaborazione”, Cambio, 9(17): 61-73.
  3. Albano R., Bertolini S., Curzi Y., Fabbri T., Parisi T. (2017), “DigitAgile: l'ufficio nel dispositivo mobile. Opportunità e rischi per lavoratori e aziende”, Osservatorio Music Working Paper Series, 03, disponibile al sito: --https://www.ojs.unito.it/index.php/music/article/view/2226 (21/1/2021).
  4. Aloisi A., De Stefano V. (2020), Il tuo capo è un algoritmo. Contro il lavoro disumano. Bari: Laterza.
  5. Azzolari D., Fullin G., Modica E., Pacetti V., Tosi S. (2021), A casa tutto bene? Le condizioni fisiche e psicologiche dei lavoratori ‘in smart, In: Peruzzi M., Sacchetto D. (eds.) Il lavoro da remoto. Aspetti giuridici e sociologici. Torino: Giappichelli.
  6. Baccaro L., Howell C. (2017), Trajectories of neoliberal transformation: European industrial relations since the 1970s. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  7. Bertoni I., Garlatti Costa G. (2020), “Smart-working forzato e massivo durante l'emergenza Covid-impatti sulla creatività individuale: uno studio empirico”, Economia e società regionale, 2: 21-27.
  8. Boell S., Cecez‐Kecmanovic D., Campbell J. (2016), “Telework paradoxes and practices: the importance of the nature of work”. New Technology, Work & Employment, 31(2): 114-131.
  9. Braun V., Clarke V. (2006), “Using thematic analysis in psychology”, Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3: 77-101.
  10. Brown W., Ebsworth R., Terry M. (1978), “Factors shaping shop steward organisation in Britain”, British Journal of Industrial Relations, 16(2): 139-159.
  11. Bubbico D., Gräbener J., Marcelino P. (2018), “L’organizzazione del lavoro, le condizioni di lavoro e l’intervento sindacale”. Sociologia del Lavoro, 151: 7-20.
  12. Butera F. (2020), “Le condizioni organizzative e professionali dello smart working dopo l’emergenza: progettare il lavoro ubiquo fatto di ruoli aperti e di professioni a larga banda”. Studi Organizzativi, 22(1): 141-165, DOI: 10.3280/SO2020-001006.
  13. Carreri A., Dordoni A. (2020), “Academic and Research Work from Home During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Italy: A Gender Perspective”. Italian Sociological Review, 10: 824-845.
  14. Carrieri D. (2017), “La resistibile ascesa della contrattazione decentrata”, Quaderni di Rassegna Sindacale, 4: 35-53.
  15. Carrieri D. (2018), “La contrattazione collettiva in Italia: fra continuità e voglia di innovazioni”. Annali della Fondazione Di Vittorio, 317-337.
  16. Casilli A. (2020), Schiavi del clic. Perché lavoriamo tutti per il nuovo capitalismo, Milano: Feltrinelli.
  17. Cella G.P. (1989), Criteria of regulation in Italian industrial relations: a case of weak institutions. In: Lange P., Regini M. (eds.), State, Market and Social Regulation: New Perspectives on Italy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 167-186.
  18. Cella,G.P. (2012), “Increasing difficulties for the industrial relations (European and Italian)”. Stato e Mercato, XXXII (1): 29-54.
  19. Cetrulo A. (2021), Report: National collective bargaining agreements in Italy: An Investigation on wages and remote work, COLBAR-EUROPE.
  20. Cetrulo A., Guarascio D., Virgillito M.E. (2020), “The privilege of working from home at the time of social distancing”. Intereconomics, 55: 142-147.
  21. CGIL (2020), Linee di indirizzo per la contrattazione dello smart working della CGIL, September 2020: --https://docplayer.it/199403768-Linee-di-indirizzo-per-la-contrattazione-dello-smart-working.html
  22. CISL-FIM (2020), Linee guida Fim Cisl sullo Smart-working, May 2020: --https://www.fim-cisl.it/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/FIM-2020-LINEE-GUIDA-SULLO-SMARTWORKING.pdf
  23. Dagnino E., Menegotto M., Pelusi, L.M., Tiraboschi M. (2017), Guida pratica al lavoro agile dopo la legge n. 81/2017. Formule contrattuali–Schemi operativi–Mappatura della contrattazione collettiva (pp. 1-205), ADAPT University Press.
  24. Dazzi D. (2021), “Lavoro agile tra rottura del vincolo spaziale e ricerca di una nuova dimensione del luogo di lavoro”. Economia e società regionale, 1: 44-54.
  25. Deery S. (1989), “Determinants of trade union influence over technological change”, New Technology, Work and Employment, 4(2):117-130.
  26. Degryse C. (2016), Digitalisation of the Economy and its Impact on Labour Markets. Etui Working Paper 2016:02. Available at: DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.2730550
  27. Del Re A. (2021), “Lavorare da casa, lavorare in casa”. Economia e società regionale, 1: 255-65.
  28. Di Nunzio D. (2018), “L’azione sindacale nell’organizzazione flessibile e digitale del lavoro”. Economia e Società Regionale, 2: 77-92.
  29. Fana M., Tolan S., Torrejón Pérez S., Urzi Brancati M.C., Fernández-Macías, E. (2020), The COVID confinement measures and EU labour markets. In JCR Technical Reports. European Commission. Available at: DOI: 10.2760/079230
  30. Ferrara M.D. (2019), “Lavoro femminile e diversity management tra mediazione sindacale e nuove opportunità del lavoro agile”, In: Il lavoro femminile in Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Rapporto 2019, Milano: Franco Angeli.
  31. Fullin G., Pacetti V. (2020), Il lavoro da casa durante l’emergenza. Tecnologie, relazioni, controllo. In Cigna L. (a cura di) Forza lavoro! Ripensare il lavoro al tempo della pandemia. Milan: Fondazione Feltrinelli.
  32. Gasparri S., Tassinari A. (2020), “‘Smart’ Industrial Relations in the Making? Insights from Analysis of Union Responses to Digitalization in Italy”. Relations Industrielles / Industrial Relations, 75(4): 796–817.
  33. Heery E., Kelly J. (1990), Full-time officers and the shop steward network: Patterns of co-operation and interdependence. In: Fosh P, Heery E. Trade unions and their members. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
  34. Huws U. (2014), Labor in the Global Digital Economy: The Cybertariat Comes of Age. New York: Monthly Review Press.
  35. Huws U., Korte W., Robinson S. (1990), Telework: Towards the Elusive Office. Chichester: John Wiley.
  36. Ibsen C.L., Tapia M. (2017), “Trade union revitalisation: Where are we now? Where to next?”, Journal of Industrial Relations, 59(2): 170–191.
  37. Ilo (2020), I sindacati in transizione. DocumentoOIL/ACTRAV, available at: --https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---europe/---ro-geneva/---ilo-rome/documents/publication/wcms_760106.pdf.
  38. Istat (2020), Il mercato del lavoro 2020, available at --https://www.istat.it/it/files//2021/02/Il-Mercato-del-lavoro-2020-1.pdf.
  39. Leonardi S. (2013), “Rappresentanza, organizzazione e democrazia: modelli e politiche sindacali a confronto”, Democrazia e Diritto, 3-4:140-170.
  40. Leonardi S. (2019), “Digitalizzazione, lavoro e contrattazione collettiva”. Economia e Società Regionale, 1:46-60.
  41. Lo Iacono V., Symonds P., Brown D.H. (2016), “Skype as a tool for qualitative research interviews”. Sociological Research Online, 21(2): 103-117.
  42. Locke R.M. (1992), “The demise of the national union in Italy: lessons for comparative industrial relations theory”. ILR Review, 45(2): 229-249.
  43. Matjie M., Maleka M., Allais C. (2021), “Role conflict experiences of South African shop stewards: An exploratory study”. Journal of Psychology in Africa, 31(2): 209-215.
  44. Miele F., Tirabeni L. (2020), “Tecnologie digitali e potere nelle organizzazioni: dinamiche di controllo ed effetto”contraccolpo”“, Studi Organizzativi, XXII, 1: 9-37.
  45. Milasi S., González-Vázquez I., Fernández-Macías E. (2021), Telework before the COVID-19 pandemic: Trends and drivers of differences across the EU. Paris: OECD.
  46. Parisi T., Curzi Y., Albano R.,Tirabeni L. (2018), “Perceived autonomy and discretion of mobile workers”. Studi Organizzativi, XX, 2: 31-61.
  47. Pedaci M. (2015), “Strategie sindacali per i lavoratori “atipici” nel settore degli ospedali pubblici e privati“, Sociologia del lavoro, 140: 99-113.
  48. Pedersini R. (2020), Living and working in Italy. Eurofound --https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/country/italy.
  49. Perulli P. (2010), Il Nord visto dal Veneto., 1000-1011.
  50. Peruzzi M., Sacchetto D. (2021), Il lavoro da remoto. Aspetti giuridici e sociologici, Torino: Giappichelli.
  51. Ponzellini A.M. (2017), “Organizzazione del lavoro e relazioni industriali. Una rassegna degli studi degli ultimi 20 anni in Italia”. Economia e Lavoro, 1: 147-164.
  52. Pulignano V., Carrieri D., Baccaro L. (2018), “Industrial relations in Italy in the twenty-first century”. Employee Relations, 40(4): 654–673.
  53. Recchia G.A. (2021), “Il lavoro agile fuori dalla straordinarietà: appunti sulla contrattazione collettiva”. Economia e società regionale, 1: 30-43.
  54. Regalia I., Regini M. (2018), “Trade Unions and Employment Relations in Italy during the Economic Crisis”. South European Society and Politics, 23(1): 63–79.
  55. Rock M. (2018), Shop steward representation in contemporary Irish industrial relations: experiences, tasks, responsibilities and challenges, University of Limerick Institutional Repository, available at: --https://ulir.ul.ie/handle/10344/7550
  56. Romens A.-I. (2021), “Lavoro da remoto, conciliazione tra tempi di vita e lockdown: per una prospettiva di genere”. Sociologia del lavoro, 160: 224–243.
  57. Signoretti A. (2016), “Analysis of Italian medium-sized enterprises’ collective bargaining from an international perspective: Evidence from the manufacturing sector”. Economic and Industrial Democracy, 37(4): 716-738.
  58. Signoretti A., Pulignano V. (2016), “Strategie del sindacato italiano, sistemi di flessibilità e regolazione del lavoro atipico”, Stato e Mercato, 117: 215-240.
  59. Tassinari A., Maccarrone, V. (2020), “Riders on the Storm: Workplace Solidarity among Gig Economy Couriers in Italy and the UK”. Work, Employment and Society, 34(1): 35–54.
  60. Tiraboschi M. (2017), Il lavoro agile tra legge e contrattazione collettiva: la tortuosa via italiana verso la modernizzazione del diritto del lavoro. WP CSDLE “Massimo DAntona”, IT, (335)
  61. UIL (2020), Circolare - Linee guida sullo smart working, July 2020: --http://www.federazioneuilscuolarualatina.it/public/lt/2020/07/14/circolare-uil-linee-guida-sullo-smart-working/.
  62. Viafora E. (2011), “Relazioni industriali e contrattazione in Veneto”. Economia e società regionale, 113, 2: 56-60.
  63. Wilks L., Billsberry J. (2007), “Should we do away with teleworking? An examination of whether teleworking can be defined in the new world of work”. New Technology, Work and Employment, 22(2): 168–177.

Anne-Iris Romens, Valeria Piro, Francesco E. Iannuzzi, The variable geometry of bargaining: implementing unions’ strategies on remote work in Italy in "STUDI ORGANIZZATIVI " 1/2022, pp 129-153, DOI: 10.3280/SO2022-001006