Il saggio prende le mosse dalla centralità che la tutela contro le discriminazioni ha oggi nel diritto del lavoro il quale, da tempo, è interessato da un fenomeno sempre più evidente di ridefinizione delle regole di produzione del diritto in un quadro di crisi economica e finanziaria e di globalizzazione e internazionalizzazione dei mercati. All'interno di queste coordinate, l’autore ha ripercorso l'evoluzione del diritto antidiscriminatorio misurandone l’effettività della sua tutela che non dipende solo dall'evoluzione delle tipologie di discriminazione vietate - che la legislazione sovranazionale ha progressivamente arricchito e affinato - ma anche dagli strumenti processuali in grado di offrire ai lavoratori discriminati rimedi che siano realmente efficaci. L'autore ha sottolineato il ruolo cruciale della giurisprudenza nel garantire l'effettività della tutela antidiscriminatoria e del diritto del lavoro in generale.

The author analyses limits and unveiled the potentials of Article 28 of the Statute of workers in the light of the new labour and technological organizations. He focuses on the capacity to sue the national trade unions’ organizations and highlights new constitutional issues. Conversely, he verifies what kind of actors, other than the employers, trade unions can lawfully sue. Therefore, the paper deepens the cases of unfair labour practises in the field of the negotiation’s behaviours, to establish whether the Italian trade unions could be making more use of such a trial instrument. Eventually, the author analyses difficulties and opportunities in extending such a special instrument in favour of non-dependant workers against unfair labour practise affecting their collective freedoms and rights. The author concludes that Article 28 can still play an important role to guarantee fair play in the industrial relations but that the legislator should address circumscribed amendments on it.

Taking inspiration from European Court of Human Rights’ case law, since 2011 Italian criminal code expressly punishes labour exploitation. Italy has also been the first European country to ratify the ILO Convention on domestic work. Nevertheless, domestic workers (and in particular, homecare workers) still face several forms of labour exploitation. In the essay, the author examines all these forms, arguing that a certain level of legal exploitation is necessary for the existence of the DIY welfare, in which families have to find a solution to their care problems by themselves. Consequently, the cases of exploitation punished by the criminal code shrink. Besides, focusing mainly on the criminally relevant cases does not prevent and correct the underlying structural conditions of labour exploitation.

The essay considers the different forms of labour exploitation that occur in agriculture in order to highlight the limits of a merely repressive solution such as the one offered by criminal law. By taking into account the issue of caporalato (hiring of workers by illegal intermediaries), the author points out that such complex phenomenon cannot be effectively countered at individual level by the traditional control/sanction system. Thus, the article encourages a reflection on the need for regulatory instruments that rather intervene to correct the distortions of the agricultural labour market and the contractual imbalances, especially the ones occurring within the agro-food supply chain.

The authors introduce the main topics examined in the different essays of the issue, describing the parts into which it has been divided (the overall topics, effectiveness and measures, rules and practices of exploitation). They also explain the reasons why the Editorial board of the Journal has decided the title of the issue (The other Article 18), pointing out the exigency to promote preventive strategies to labour exploitation, to develop a dialogue between labour and criminal law, and to enforce the role of trade unions.