PROTECTION OF SKILLS IN EMPLOYMENT RELATIONSHIPS AND IN THE LABOUR MARKET: AN OVERVIEW OF THE ITALIAN SITUATION

Abstract

Globalisation and technological changes have a dramatic impact on the labour market. For this reason, skills need to be strengthened and protected and workers have to respond to these great transformations by improving their professionalization. Focusing the attention on the Jobs Act, this paper offers an overview of the change that Italy may undertake, analysing the most innovative aspects of the new reform and paying particular attention to the protection of skills within the employment contract and the labour market. In this regard, the research highlights how the Jobs Act has strengthened the protection of skills. On the one hand, it specifies that in case of ‘changes in job tasks’ the employer shall provide training activities in order to develop the employee’s skills (art. 2103 Civil Code). On the other hand, from the perspective of the labour market, it provides efficient active labour market policies in order to tackle the lack of skills protection. These are all considerable positive steps: the Jobs Act Reform represents a move in the right direction and the first important step towards the development of an enhanced skill system.

Keywords

• Jobs Act, ius variandi
• protection of skills
• training activities
• active labour market policies