The scope and significance of a breakthrough in labour market
regulation
The 2015 reform changed Italian labour law more significantly
than that of May 1970, when the Statuto dei Lavoratori was
enacted (a very important reform of the entire discipline of
individual and collective labour relations, which introduced some
very important protections against dismissal and discrimination in
the workplace). In fact, at that time, albeit the enactment of that
law marked a very important milestone indeed, it was a part of an
ongoing process that had started some time previously, in the
1960s, with a number of statutory provisions granting labour
protection: the ban on any interposition in 1960, a very
restrictive regulation of fixed-term contracts in 1962, the
protection of working women in connection with their marriage in
1963, the provision of compensation for unfair dismissal in 1966,
long-term temporary lay-off insurance ("Cassa integrazione
straordinaria") and special
