In Italy, labour law is governed by the Constitution, the Civil Code, special laws for specific groups and by bargaining, in that order.

Collective agreements in force can be consulted on the website of the National Council for Economic Affairs and Labour.

Common contract types

• Open-ended contract: this is a stable contract (without any pre-determined expiry date). It may stipulate an initial trial period of employment, provided that this is specified in the hiring letter. However, once this period has been completed, the contract becomes definitive and, as such, is subject to any provision in the national collective labour agreement. This type of contract may be full-time, part-time or on a reduced hours basis.
• Fixed-term contract: under this type of contract, the period of employment is fixed in advance and the end of the contract must be stipulated clearly in writing, otherwise the contract will be null an void.
• Part-time contract: under this type of contract employees may either have their working hours reduced on a daily basis as set out by national bargaining (horizontal part-time arrangements), or may work full-time but only on or during specific times of the week, month or year (vertical part-time arrangements), or may work full-time only during certain periods of the year (cyclical part-time arrangements). A part-time contract may be open-ended or of fixed term.
• Contract for quasi-employees: this type of contract applies in particular to consultants and external staff. It does not constitute an employer-employee contract, but rather an agreement on the temporary provision of services, in which the method of work, its duration and the corresponding remuneration are set out in a contract drawn up by the respective parties. Under amendments currently being made to coordinated and ongoing collaborative work contracts, such relationships will be linked to the performance of a defined project (with the duration and relevant amount payable set out and approved in writing). This amendment will be a step towards limiting unjustified use of such contracts to the detriment of standard employment contracts.
• Temporary work. Temporary workers are hired by a temping agency to work for a company that needs to meet particular production requirements during a specific period. Despite being employed through the temping agencies, these workers are covered by the same national and company collective labour agreements in force within the company for whom they are working.

New types of work planned include, in particular, job-sharing (lavoro ripartito) where two or more individuals fill the same position, and 'on-call jobs' (lavoro a chiamata) which involves hiring individuals on either an open-ended or fixed-term contract to meet peaks in production or urgent requirements on the part of the employer.

Finally, other forms of work are in joint ventures, offering the opportunity to receive a share of takings or profits (and, for the moment, no contributory cover), and in the cooperatives sector (conventional workers' cooperatives, social cooperatives and de facto cooperatives.