The Reform of Public Employment in Italy between Continuity and Change

In the last decade of the twentieth century several reforms were adopted in Italy to improve the performance of public employment. They introduced a new discipline, eroding the differences between the public and the private sector. Consistently with this line, in 2009, Renato Brunetta, minister for the public administration and innovation in the fourth Berlusconi government, provided new rules to manage public servants. However, it marked a change in labour relations, bypassing trade unions in the process of reform formulation and replacing the consensual decision-making with a majoritarian style. This article focus on these reforms and on the elements of continuity and change envisaged by the Matteo Renzi government.