ABSTRACT
This chapter examines bargaining on working time in Italy over the last 10 years, dealing in particular with flexible working arrangements negotiated at company level. It discusses the evolution of trade union policies in recent years as part of the dialectic between the ‘generalized reduction’ and the ‘flexibilization’ of working hours. The chapter also examines impact of those policies on industrial relations and on bargaining structures (and especially the emergence of the company level as the main arena of negotiations on working hours). It focuses on the new policies for reconciling work with family life promoted by both the trade unions and a number of family-friendly firms. On the hand, an increasing number of occupations, especially in services, require work to be performed at non-traditional times of the day, even at times which used to be called ‘antisocial’, like evenings, nights or weekends. These changes are coming about when increasing labour-market participation by women, and also the slow but steady.
