Author(s): Federico Fusco
The present paper focuses on the value that the conflict has in the Italian and Swedish systems of industrial relations and employment law. The analysis points out how the respective differences between the two countries play a major role in shaping some of the basic features of the national systems. The changing constitutional relevance of the phenomenon of the strike, which represents the classic example of conflict within the industrial relations, affects various aspects of the national frameworks. On one hand, it contributes to shape the conflictual or cooperative approach of the trade unions towards the employers, while on the other impacts on the individual litigation of the single employee against the employer. The principal findings are that while in the Swedish system the conflict is perceived as something negative and to avoid, in the Italian one it almost arises as a value itself. From this basic difference, stem several implications, which lead in the former case to a system with a high degree of cooperation and low conflictuality, while in the latter to an opposite outcome.