Framing work and welfare: Insights from the growing relevance of company welfare in Italy

Stefano Gasparri

doi:10.1177/0022185620973685

Abstract

This article applies the concept of frames of reference to contemporary work and welfare dynamics by focusing on the growing relevance of company welfare in Italy after the 2008 crisis. The analysis considers how this occurred along three phases: in the first, a path-breaking case, Luxottica, demonstrates the potential of company welfare; then, Renzi’s government promotes company welfare through tax breaks; finally, trade unions try to affect the diffusion of company welfare, displaying contrasting ideologies as well as pragmatic joint solutions in the process. Overall, two contiguous sub-frames – consultative unitarism and collaborative pluralism – offer the mainstream justification to the events and the policy debate around them, a debate in which the industrial relations scholarship played a key role. However, a critical interpretation is present too, suggesting that the relevance of company welfare is driven by the mobilisation of a political and economic elite and results in few cases of positive employment relations alongside broad social and economic imbalances.

Highlights

Frames of reference (FoR) – unitarist, pluralist and radical, plus a few combinations – reflect a particular perspective on the nature of employment relations (Heery, 2016a)
We have examined the growing relevance of company welfare that occurred in Italy after the 2008 crisis, testing FoR in an original manner by enlarging the perspective beyond workplace-level dynamics to include welfare and employment policies
As for the practice, our findings demonstrate that best practice in one company (Luxottica) and fiscal welfare policies have played a key role in the promotion of company welfare (Grandi, 2017; Mallone, 2013)

Summary

Introduction

Frames of reference (FoR) – unitarist, pluralist and radical, plus a few combinations – reflect a particular perspective on the nature of employment relations (Heery, 2016a). A wide array of secondary sources was considered in order to illustrate, reconstruct and understand key developments and dynamics underlying the diffusion of company welfare Beyond academic contributions, this part of the analysis relied on the abundance of material directly produced by the actors with a stake in company welfare, that is, policy-makers and state agencies, academic think-tanks, employers and their associations, trade unions, welfare benefit providers, consultancy firms, other interest organisations and experts. A prominent role in shaping this debate was played by an academic think-tank, Secondo Welfare, with the aim of discovering and collecting positive and replicable experiences of innovative forms of non-public welfare provisions Another key contribution was brought by the consultancy firm McKinsey (2013), which linked the financial benefits of company welfare schemes to cost-reduction opportunities for companies and improved employee engagement and productivity. The first phase consists of the emergence of company welfare provisions as a promising form of occupational welfare after the 2008 economic crisis and the 2011 public budget crisis severely questioned the capacity of social welfare in Italy

CW and trade unions

Findings

Conclusion