The application of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights in Italy. The Labour Law perspective

This paper examines the application of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (CFR) in the Italian legal order, with a specific focus on labour law. Since the Charter gained binding force with the Treaty of Lisbon, its integration into Italy’s constitutional framework—characterised by strong constitutional rights protection and the primacy of EU law—has generated important developments in the protection of workers’ rights. The analysis explores how Italian courts, particularly the Constitutional Court and the Court of Cassation, employ the Charter in cases concerning non-discrimination, dignity at work, data protection, collective rights, and the protection of “vulnerable workers”. While the CFR is applied primarily in situations involving the implementation of EU law, Italian jurisprudence increasingly uses it as a normative parameter to interpret domestic provisions in conformity with EU fundamental rights. This interaction has strengthened judicial scrutiny over employers’ powers, reinforced procedural guarantees for employees, and expanded protections in areas such as dismissal, privacy in the workplace, and atypical employment. Nonetheless, doctrinal and judicial debates remain regarding the exact scope of the Charter, its relationship with the Italian Constitution, and the need for consistent operational criteria. The study concludes that the CFR represents a dynamic and evolving tool in Italian labour law, enhancing the multilevel protection of fundamental rights while also posing challenges for legal certainty and systematic coherence.