Social Legislation

SOCIAL LEGISLATION. - Social legislation, in the conventional and narrow sense (since in the broad sense every legislation, by its very nature, can be called social), is commonly understood as the body of normative sources of the State directed to the protection of working categories (and especially of the weakest, such as children, women, the unemployed, etc.) with regard, for example, to hygienic protection, to physical and moral safety, to the employment service, to the minimum age limit for entering into the employment contract, to the maximum working hours, to periods of rest and holidays, to social insurance, to assistance, etc. Such legislation is inspired not only by particular motives of protection of the neediest categories, but also by general motives of national collective interest of a political, ethical, economic, sanitary, and demographic character.

An eminent contribution to social legislation, albeit indirect, was given by the teaching of the pontiffs. Already in the encyclical Rerum novarum (1891) Leo XIII affirmed that "the class of the rich, strong in itself, has less need of public defense: the poor masses, on the other hand, who lack support of their own, have the greatest need to find it in the patronage of the State. And therefore to the workers, who are among the weak and needy, the State must, by preference, direct its care and its providence" (n. 20). Previously there had been, here and there, the issuance of certain norms, more or less timid or fragmentary (among them notable were those promoted by Bismarck and inspired by what he called "practical Christianity": cf. the parliamentary speeches of 2 April 1881, 9 January 1882, 15 March 1884); but "it is certain - affirms Pius XI in Quadragesimo anno (n. 12) - that then at last, when the pontifical word resounded from the Chair of Peter throughout the whole world, the rulers of peoples, made more conscious of their duty, turned their thoughts and attention to promoting a richer social policy"; and from a "continuous untiring labor arose a new branch of juridical discipline altogether ignored in past times, which forcefully defends the sacred rights of workers that come to them from the dignity of men and of Christians." Although the provisions in force "do not agree everywhere and in everything with the norms of Leo XIII, it cannot however be denied that in many points an echo of the encyclical Rerum novarum is felt, to which therefore the improved condition of workers is in considerable part to be attributed" (Quadragesimo anno, n. 12, in AAS, 23 [1931], pp. 185-86).

The norms in this matter have an imperative nature, that is, not derogable by the will of private individuals and, at least as a rule, not derogable even by the will of professional associations in collective contracts, except in a sense more favorable to workers. In case of violation, penal and administrative sanctions are provided, as well as civil or patrimonial ones. In the doctrinal construction of the juridical system, some authors place social legislation within administrative law, others within labor law.

Supervisory bodies for its application are, in Italy, the labor inspectorates, some central, others provincial or interprovincial; the officials placed in charge of them may visit laboratories, factories, construction sites; issue warnings; raise contraventions, etc. The labor offices (provincial and regional organs of the ministry of the same name, like the inspectorates) provide, among other things, for the placement of workers, assistance to emigrants, and the conciliation of labor disputes.

The most recent statutory charters of many States have elevated the norms in this matter to the constitutional plane, and so too has the Italian Charter (1947), which sets forth certain general principles (arts. 35-38) and provides for a technical organ of legislative elaboration, the National Council of Economy and Labor, composed of experts and representatives of the productive categories (art. 99).

The norms of social legislation are then increasingly extending into the international field, not only through specific agreements and treaties between particular States, but also through conventions elaborated by the International Labor Organization, open to the subsequent adherence of all interested States, and through the possible activity of the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations Organization.

Ferruccio Pergolesi