The Economic Crisis and Flexible Pay Structures: The Current Italian Outlook

The author explores an issue of acute contemporary relevance which is fueling a heated doctrinal debate in Italy and regards "flexible" remuneration or the linking of pay to productivity, performance or quality. It is the author's belief that, as a result of the economic downturn and changing organisational models within companies, at this moment in time there is a growing need for workers to be made more directly involved in their companies' overall productivity. This aim can be achieved by tying pay to performance, with remuneration based not on the amount of time spent at work, as has traditionally been the case in Italy, but with a pattern of remuneration based on the efficiency of workers' performance, a practice which has until now been infrequently applied.