ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the legal, economic and industrial relations context with reference to the three countries on which the research focuses: Italy, Poland and the UK. As the title of the chapter suggests, drawing on Locke and Thelen’s seminal article, adopt a ‘contextualised comparisons’ approach to analysis to establish how European Union law on pay equality is refracted through different institutional settings. In the Italian legal system, the principle of pay equality between men and women at work is enshrined by Art. 37 of the Constitution, which states that ‘working women are entitled to equal rights and equal pay for equal work’. This article is directly enforceable against both individual employment contracts and collective agreements. Despite the promotion of collective bargaining decentralisation, salary structures in Italy are centralised and are guaranteed by freedom of trade unions and collective bargaining under Art. 39 Const., without any legislative provision of a minimum wage.
