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

Gasparri, Stefano

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Authors

Stefano Gasparri Stefano.Gasparri@uwe.ac.uk
Senior Lecturer in Human Resource Management



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.

Citation

Gasparri, S. (2021). Framing work and welfare: Insights from the growing relevance of company welfare in Italy. Journal of Industrial Relations, 63(2), 235-262. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022185620973685

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Oct 21, 2020
Online Publication Date Dec 13, 2020
Publication Date Apr 1, 2021
Deposit Date Oct 27, 2020
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Journal of Industrial Relations
Print ISSN 0022-1856
Electronic ISSN 1472-9296
Publisher SAGE Publications
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 63
Issue 2
Pages 235-262
DOI https://doi.org/10.1177/0022185620973685
Keywords Employee benefits, employment relations, industrial relations theory, labour–management cooperation, welfare system
Public URL https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/6818092

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