The identification of the employer in the context of organisational fragmentation: the Italian legal framework

Abstract

This article analyses the switch of the Italian regulatory approach to subcontracting, from the “fordist” model based on a rigid coincidence between the formal employer (holder of the contract) and the user of the work performance, to the new models of production characterised by “organisational fragmentation”. To this purpose, it considers the evolution of the legislative discipline and jurisprudential elaboration concerning the “appalto” contract, the most common Italian commercial contract as for buying labour, goods or services, alongside that of some neighbouring legal instruments.