ESTRATEGIAS PRIMARIAS
V. INSTALACIÓN Y PRUEBA DEL PROGRAMA.
15. Factores Contribuyentes
With reference to the Italian regulatory framework which disciplines the organization of the worker, it is useful to focus on the concepts which, together with that of “mansione”, make up the specific object of the work obligation, contributing to “placing” the worker within the organization structure of the enterprise: qualifications and categories.
Proceeding step by step, it is necessary to point out that there are numerous senses in which the word “qualification” is generally used (in the juridical ambit, of course).
We refer to the “subjective” qualification to indicate the overall sphere of professional capabilities, attitudes, characteristics and
275 V. F. GIAMMARIA, Le mansioni del lavoratore (art. 2103 c.c.), in R. PESSI (edited by), Codice commentato del lavoro, Milan, 2011, 329.
276 M.N. BETTINI, op. cit., 47. See also for its definitions the interesting contribution offered by C. PISANI, Mansioni del lavoratore, in Enc. giur. Treccani, Rome, 1990, 19, 1: tasks indicate «il tipo di attività, le operazioni, i compiti per lo svolgimento dei quali
il lavoratore viene assunto, che è tenuto ad eseguire e che il datore di lavoro può esigere. Le mansioni fungono dunque da criterio di determinazione qualitativa della prestazione e tramite esse viene delimitata gran parte dell’area del debito del lavoratore nei confronti del datore di lavoro».
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experiences of the worker, which can be independent and pre-existent to the work relationship.
On the contrary, with the expression “objective qualification”, we refer to the sum of tasks objectively described in the employment contract; emphasizing the centrality of the contract as sedes for the definition of the tasks assigned to the employee, the objective qualification is equally defined as “qualifica contrattuale”277.
Evident seems the substantial coincidence between the concept of qualification, considered in its objective-contractual meaning, and the essence of the concept of task: the foundational nucleous of both concepts is, in fact, represented by the “agreed upon activity”.
In contrast with the crystal clarity of the term “task”, the word “qualification” has an ambiguity of non-secondary relevance for what concerns its true essence, to the point that an authoritative scholar has stated the substantial coincidence of the concepts of task and qualification: we would be in presence of a semantic variation of the same conceptual substratum278.
277 To this regard, G. GIUGNI, Mansioni e qualifica, cit., 546, points out how in terms of qualifications irrelevant is the employee’s possession (or not) of the corpus of the professional competences which allow him/her a correct and advantageous execution of the duties included in the same objective qualification. The example provided by the author is particularly efficacious: the individual in possession of the objective qualification of turner is the person who has accepted to perform the correspondent activity, which consists in turning the lathe. That the same individual may not be effectively prepared and in possession of adequate competences to carry out his activity with positive results for the enterprise, is not important for what concerns his objective qualification: in any case, he will be a turner, even if an “inexperienced” one.
278 Ivi, 547; ID., Mansioni e qualifica nel rapporto di lavoro, Naples, 1963, 32, in which the author criticizes the phenomenon of the so-called «germinazione di nozioni che
valgono soltanto ad enfatizzare con potenzialità confusionarie dati del tutto ovvi». The
substantial “overlapping” of concepts, stressed by Prof. Giugni can be found also with reference to the concepts of “qualification” and “category”, if we consider a jurisprudential orientation of the Supreme Court, even if it is not consolidated and not recent (see Cass., sez. lav., 12 January 1999, n. 275, in Mass. giur. lav., 1999, 430 et
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Simplifying, we can say that by “qualification” we intend the sum of the duties contractually stipulated, identifying this way the status, the professional figure of the worker and therefore, “positioning” him/her within the company organization279.
Hence, it is clear that while the word task indicates the object of the work performance in its specificity and concreteness, the word qualification limits itself to a generic indication of the work obligation, referring to the professional status of the worker.
Finally, the concept of “category” deserves a separate definition: it is a classificatory entity which gathers in itself the different qualifications or the different professional profiles, in what can be defined as an articulate system of professional classification.
Categories can then be divided into “legal” and “contractual”: with the former we refer to the “Categories of employees” of which at the article 2095, paragraph 1, c.c. («dirigenti, quadri, impiegati e
operai»); with the latter we intend those object of collective bargaining,
as an integration and an extra to the legal ones (we can think about the
“funzionari” or about the so-called “intermedi”).
What we have so far examined is the Italian classificatory system, which is deeply centered on the essential concept of task, considered as a fundamental pre-supposition for the classification of the employee.
seq.). Also in legislation it could be possible to find some cases of “alternative” use of
the term “qualification” with that of “category”.
279 P. POZZAGLIA – A. VALLEBONA, Mansioni e qualifiche del lavoratore, in S. PATTI (edited by), Il Diritto. Enciclopedia giuridica, Milan, 2007, 371.
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