Contrattazione collettiva e procedure stragiudiziali di risoluzione delle controversie individuali di lavoro

Obiettivi: il progetto di ricerca si pone l’obiettivo di delineare le recenti tendenze della contrattazione collettiva in materia di strumenti di composizione stragiudiziale delle controversie di lavoro; strumenti, in primis la conciliazione, alternativi e paralleli rispetto la giurisdizione statuale poiché propri dell’ordinamento intersindacale, il cui ricorso giova, per celerità ed economia, alle parti che vi ricorrano e, al tempo stesso, le tutela attribuendo alle rinunce e transazioni validate in sede sindacale l’inoppugnabilità di cui all’art. 2113 codice civile e al verbale di conciliazione efficacia di titolo esecutivo. Ad oggi il ricorso agli strumenti di risoluzione stragiudiziale delle controversie, oggetto del susseguirsi di riforme legislative, è facoltativo, affievolendone la funzione deflattiva del contenzioso giudiziario, ma dotando le associazioni sindacali maggiormente rappresentative firmatarie di contratti collettivi della possibilità di prevedere sedi e modalità di conciliazione, ex art. 412 ter codice di procedura civile. È lo stesso legislatore, quindi, a riconoscere all’autonomia collettiva il potere di configurare e governare i sistemi di risoluzione stragiudiziale delle controversie, lasciando ampi margini di discrezionalità ai corpi intermedi, con il conseguente proliferare di un canale sindacale cosiddetto libero, estraneo alle modalità di conciliazione previste dalla contrattazione collettiva. L’aleatorietà della delega legislativa genera contrastanti orientamenti dottrinali e giurisprudenziali – confermati da una recente sentenza del Tribunale di Roma – in merito a quale modalità di conciliazione possa vantare gli effetti attesi. Metodologia: il punto di vista privilegiato dal quale si è inteso investigare la materia sono le relazioni industriali, mediante l’analisi della contrattazione collettiva e specificatamente attraverso la mappatura di 205 contratti collettivi, nazionali e territoriali, appartenenti ai comparti dell’industria; artigianato; terziario, distribuzione e servizi; agricoltura; credito, assicurazione e tributi. La scelta di un’analisi empirica è frutto della consapevolezza che, nonostante un approccio giuridico – normativo, che si soffermi sull’inquadramento giuridico degli strumenti dell’ordinamento intersindacale, sia necessario per la conoscenza della materia, esso appare limitante per comprendere la funzione attribuita dai corpi intermedi (con focus sulle associazioni di categoria) alla risoluzione stragiudiziale delle controversie nella contrattazione collettiva. La metodologia adottata è quindi funzionale all’oggetto di ricerca, con l’analisi delle fonti legislative e giurisprudenziali, la ricostruzione della letteratura e la ricerca empirica all’interno della contrattazione collettiva, fil rouge del progetto di ricerca. Risultati: dalle tendenze della contrattazione collettiva emerge il diffuso riferimento alle procedure stragiudiziali di risoluzione del conflitto e la conseguente evidenza per cui la contrattazione collettiva, già riconosciuta come fonte extra ordinem, ricopra, con le sue funzioni e un proprio apparato giurisdizionale, l’amministrazione delle liti intersindacali e interindividuali. Tale attribuzione gestionale, con valenza unitaria, permette di non ridurre il contratto collettivo a mera funzione giuridico – normativa, ma tiene debitamente conto delle sue funzioni economico – sociali. Limiti e implicazioni: considerata l’approfondita indagine dei testi contrattuali e la vastità dei comparti mappati, è emersa la difficoltà di confrontarsi con la proliferazione di contratti collettivi insistenti nel medesimo settore produttivo, conseguenza del manifestarsi di una notevole frammentazione della rappresentanza, insieme alla fluidità dei perimetri della contrattazione collettiva di categoria; a tale limite si è cercato di sopperire mediante l’utilizzo del sistema di inquadramento attribuito dall’INPS, nonché del recente archivio nazionale della contrattazione collettiva ad opera del CNEL. Ulteriore difficoltà si registra nel contenuto delle procedure contrattuali, sia sovente nel mancato recepimento delle riforme giuslavoristiche, che soprattutto nei casi in cui il contratto collettivo riduca la natura facoltativa della conciliazione, riportando in auge l’annosa questione dell’autonomia e autosufficienza dell’ordinamento intersindacale. Originalità: l’originalità del progetto di ricerca è insita nella metodologia prescelta, promossa con l’intento di dimostrare l’assunto per cui la composizione dei conflitti di lavoro costituisca un insieme di norme, procedurali e di comportamento, funzionalmente collegato agli altri aspetti delle relazioni industriali, tanto da costituirne la base. Si esalta, a tal fine, la mappatura del vasto materiale contrattuale e l’estrapolazione delle tendenze dei contratti collettivi, constatando che in essi la risoluzione delle controversie assume rilevanza strutturale negli obblighi a cui le parti sociali reciprocamente si vincolano, in quanto riconosciuta come funzionale al fine di assicurare un positivo andamento delle relazioni industriali.Objective: the research has the purpose to outline the recent trends in the collective bargaining as regards to alternative dispute resolution (ADR) for labor disputes. These alternative means, among which the conciliation, are parallel to the state jurisdiction because they belong to the inter – union system. The benefits are speed, cost – effectiveness and indisputability ex art. 2113 Civil Code. The use of these instruments is optional, with a deflationary function of judicial litigation and with the faculty of trade unions to identify the conciliation procedures ex art. 412 ter of the civil procedure code. Therefore, it is the legislator who grants collective autonomy the power to govern out – of – court dispute resolution systems, with wide margins of discretion to trade unions and the consequent proliferation of free – form conciliations, unrelated to the methods envisaged by collective bargaining. Methodology: the point of view from which the subject is investigated is industrial relations, through the analysis of collective bargaining and specifically through the mapping of 205 national and territorial collective agreements, belonging to industry, crafts, commerce, agriculture and credit. The choice of empirical analysis is due to the awareness that a legal – regulatory approach is necessary, but it is restrictive to understanding the function attributed to the out – of – court settlement of disputes in collective bargaining. The methodology adopted is therefore functional to the research object, with the analysis of legislative and jurisprudential sources, the reconstruction of the literature and empirical research within collective bargaining. Results: from the trends of collective bargaining emerges the widespread reference to out – of – court conflict resolution procedures and the consequent evidence that collective bargaining, already recognized as an extra ordinem source, manages individual and collective conflicts, through its own judicial apparatus. This result allows to consider also its economic and social functions. Limits and implications: in the research project has been analyzed a vast number of contractual texts. It has emerged the difficulty of dealing with the proliferation of collective agreements persisting in the same production sector. To make up for this limit it has been employed the classification system assigned by INPS, as well as the recent national archive of collective bargaining by the CNEL. A further difficulty is recorded in the content of contractual procedures, especially in cases where the collective agreement reduces the optional nature of conciliation, bringing back the debated question to consider trade unions as an autonomous and self – sufficient legal system. Originality: the originality of this project lies in the methodology used, which has the aim of demonstrating that the settlement of out – of – court labour conflicts constitutes a set of procedural and behavioural rules. This has been obtained by mapping the vast contractual material and extrapolating the trends of collective agreements to which the social parties are mutually bound

Synergic action of organic matter-microorganism-plant in soil bioremediation

Bioremediation is a natural process, which relies on bacteria, fungi, and plants to degrade, break down, transform, and/or essentially remove contaminants, ensuring the conservation of the ecosystem biophysical properties. Since microorganisms are the former agents for the degradation of organic contaminants in soil, the application of organic matter (such as compost, sewage sludge, etc.), which increases microbial density and also provides nutrients and readily degradable organic matter (bioenhancement-bioaugmentation) can be considered useful to accelerate the contaminant degradation. Moreover, the organic matter addition, by means of the increase of cation exchange capacity, soil porosity and water-holding capacity, enhances the soil health and provides a medium satisfactory for microorganism activity. Plants have been also recently used in soil reclamation strategy both for their ability to uptake, transform, and store the contaminants (Atagana et al., 2011), and to promote the degradation of contaminants by microbes at rhizosphere level. It is widely recognized that plant, through organic materials, nutrients and oxygen supply, produces a rich microenvironment capable of promoting microbial proliferation and activity

The light and shadow of senescence and inflammation in cardiovascular pathology and regenerative medicine

Recent epidemiologic studies evidence a dramatic increase of cardiovascular diseases, especially associated with the aging of the world population. During aging, the progressive impairment of the cardiovascular functions results from the compromised tissue abilities to protect the heart against stress. At the molecular level, in fact, a gradual weakening of the cellular processes regulating cardiovascular homeostasis occurs in aging cells. Atherosclerosis and heart failure are particularly correlated with aging-related cardiovascular senescence, that is, the inability of cells to progress in the mitotic program until completion of cytokinesis. In this review, we explore the intrinsic and extrinsic causes of cellular senescence and their role in the onset of these cardiovascular pathologies. Additionally, we dissect the effects of aging on the cardiac endogenous and exogenous reservoirs of stem cells. Finally, we offer an overview on the strategies of regenerative medicine that have been advanced in the quest for heart rejuvenation

Assessment of overgrazing on degradation of sloping soil

Overgrazing, particularly on slopes, can cause significant alterations in soil quality, determining a greater vulnerability to soil erosion. The aim of this work was to assess the influence of horse overgrazing on sloping (20%) soil properties. Chemical and biochemical parameters have been determined in order to evaluate soil quality. A significant decrease in nutrients was observed after one year. The trend of enzyme activities highlighted a reduction of metabolic processes. However, after one year of resting land, an improvement of soil quality could be noticed by the restoration of the initial level of enzymatic activities

A real-scale soil Phytoremediation

In the present investigation, a phytoremediation process with a combination of different plant species (Populus nigra (var.italica), Paulownia tomentosa and Cytisus scoparius) has been proposed at real-scale to bioremediate and functionally recover a soil historically contaminated by heavy metals and organic contaminants. In the attempts to assess both effectiveness and evolution of the remediation system toward a natural soil ecosystem, besides the pollution parameters, also parameters describing the efficiency of the microbiological components (enzyme activities), were investigated. In three years the total content of hydrocarbons and heavy metals in soil decreased with time (50% and 10-30%, respectively), in particular at surface level. The reduction in pollutants was probably the reason of the increase over the time of the ?-glucosidase and phosphatase activity, enzymes related to C and P cycles, respectively. However, this trend was obviously due also to the greater availability of substrates. Dehydrogenase activity, widely used as an indicator of overall microbial activity, showed a great variability among sampling points. Moreover, a phytotest carried out with Lepidium sativum and Raphanus sativus, showed after three years a significant increase in percentage of plant growth, confirming a reduction in soil toxicity and an improvement in soil nutritional state. At the moment the evaluation of the soil protein pattern (SDS-page), are in progress, in order to identify a correlation between the organic contamination and the soil protein expression. Therefore, this biological system seems very promising to perform both decontamination and to functionally recover a polluted soil also at real-scale level

Stabilisation and mineralisation of sludge in reed bed system after 10-20 years of operation

Sludge stabilisation and mineralisation occurring in the sludge residue within the sludge treatment reed bed systems during periods of operation between 10 - 21 years in three different systems receiving sludge from urban wastewater treatment plants situated in Denmark. Samples were taken in the sludge residues along the entire profiles, in order to compare the effectiveness of the sludge stabilisation process in the three systems. Particular attention was given to the stabilisation process occurring within the reed beds; in fact, parameters correlated to biochemical properties of organic sludge matter have been determined. Statistical procedures were used to evaluate how the biochemical processes influence the quality of sludge organic matter in the three systems. The level of total organic carbon and total nitrogen had a similar trend along the profile: their concentration decreased with increasing depth, reaching very low levels at the deepest layers. The same trend was also observed for the water soluble carbon, N-NH3, b-glucosidase and urease activities, hydrolytic enzymes linked to C and N cycles, respectively: their values decreased dramatically with increasing depth, meaning that the level of mineralisation of the organic matter was higher in the deepest layers. The determination of extracellular enzymes bound to humic substances and humic carbon permitted to evaluate the stabilisation of organic sludge matter, and also allowed to individuate in which ways the sludge was stabilised, in terms of mineralisation and humification of the organic matter

Vermicomposted olive oil wastewaters in horticultural practices

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of a vermicompost (obtained from olive mill wastewaters and cellulose materials) on soil quality and fertility, and on the yield of different horticultural species (Allium porrum L.; Cichorium intybus L., Brassica oleracea). The results showed an improvement in the chemical (increase in total and soluble nutrients) and biological (increase in enzyme activities) soil fertility also with respect to a soil treated with traditional municipal solid waste compost. Moreover, in vermicompost treatments a higher yield (Allium porrum L.; and Brassica oleracea) or equal (Cichorium intybus L.,) to the traditional compost was observed

Decontamination and functional reclamation of dredged brackish sediments

The continuous stream of sediment dredged from harbors and channels to provide shipping traffic efficiency is a considerable and ongoing problem worldwide recognized. In this study (European Project AGRIPORT) phytoremediation has been considered as a sustainable reclamation technology for bringing slightly polluted brackish sediments into productive use. The experimentation has been carried out in containers of about 1 m3 filled with contaminated (heavy metals and hydrocarbons) brackish sediments. The fine particles granulometric composition made necessary a bio-physical pre-conditioning of sediments by mixing them with an agronomic structured soil (30% v/v). Moreover, a high quality compost was mixed with the sediment-soil matrix at surface level (40t/ha) with the aim of favouring the initial adaptation of the selected vegetal species. Different plant treatments were chosen: i) Paspalum vaginatum, ii) Phragmites australis, iii) Spartium junceum + Paspalum vaginatum, iv) Nerium oleander+ Paspalum vaginatum, v) Tamarix gallica+ Paspalum vaginatum, and vi) No plants used as control. After one year from the beginning of the experimentation all the plant species were still in healthy condition and well developed. During the time, increasing values of nitrate were generally observed in the planted sediments, suggesting an improvement of the chemico-physical conditions for microorganisms and plants. The stimulation of the microbial activity in the planted sediment with respect to control has been confirmed by the increase of the dehydrogenase activity. Concerning the organic and inorganic contaminant concentrations, decreased values were detected, despite the short period passed, indicating the efficiency and success of this technology for brackish sediments reclamation

Bile Acid Recognition by NAPE-PLD

The membrane-associated enzyme NAPE-PLD (N-acyl phosphatidylethanolamine specific-phospholipase D) generates the endogenous cannabinoid arachidonylethanolamide and other lipid signaling amides, including oleoylethanolamide and palmitoylethanolamide. These bioactive molecules play important roles in several physiological pathways including stress and pain response, appetite and lifespan. Recently, we reported the crystal structure of human NAPE-PLD and discovered specific binding sites for the bile acid deoxycholic acid. In this study we demonstrate that in the presence of this secondary bile acid, the stiffness of the protein measured by elastic neutron scattering increases, and NAPE-PLD results ~7 times faster to catalyze the hydrolysis of the more unsaturated substrate N-arachidonyl-phosphatidylethanolamine, compared with N-palmitoyl-phosphatidylethanolamine. Chenodeoxycholic acid and glyco- or tauro-dihydroxy conjugates can also bind to NAPE-PLD and drive its activation. The only natural monohydroxy bile acid, lithocholic acid, shows an affinity of ~20 μM and acts instead as a reversible inhibitor (IC(50) ≈ 68 μM). Overall, these findings provide important insights into the allosteric regulation of the enzyme mediated by bile acid cofactors, and reveal that NAPE-PLD responds primarily to the number and position of their hydroxyl groups