Italian Supreme Court: on the notion of comparatively greater representativeness under Article 19 of the Workers’ Statute

By judgment No. 27541/2026, published on 22 October 2026, the Labour Section of the Italian Supreme Court ruled on the interpretation of Article 19 of the Workers’ Statute as resulting from Constitutional Court judgment No. 156/2025.

The Italian Supreme Court clarified that, for the purpose of identifying the comparatively most representative trade union associations at national level within which company trade union representation bodies (“RSA”) may be established under Article 19 of the Workers’ Statute, the scope of the comparison is the sector of activity in which the undertaking or production unit concerned operates, identified on the basis of the activity actually carried out, as shown by the companies register and by the further objective indicators available, provided that they are consistent with the activity actually exercised.

The Court further specified that comparatively greater representativeness must be ascertained, with reference to the undertaking’s sector of activity and at national level, through an overall assessment of the trade union association’s representative capacity, derived from the average between the membership figure and the electoral figure, to be compared with the average representativeness calculated according to the same criterion and expressed by all the trade unions that have signed the so-called leader agreement in that sector. This is, therefore, a further title of standing, alternative to the signing of the applied collective agreement and to participation in its negotiation.

The status of comparatively most representative trade union association must exist at the time of the workers’ initiative and is a constitutive element of the right to establish an RSA.

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