To better frame some of the main features of the regulation of part-time work within the Italian legal system (Articles 4-12 Legislative Decree No. 81/2015), it is necessary to make some preliminary considerations. Italy, like other European countries, is in fact in the unfortunate position of having marginalised part-time work to a “gender employment” function, the prerogative almost exclusively of the female population. A contractual instrument of flexibility, rather than a real reconciliation instrument, because it is often forced into the form of involuntary part-time (Eurofund data) for reasons of occupational choice and care. It is also a critical element that, according to the data, care needs always remain in the hands of women, and this is never sufficiently taken into account in the dynamics of the use of part-time contracts. As an example, the International Labour Organisation calculates that, on average, women worldwide perform 4 hours and 25 minutes more unpaid care work each day than the 1 hour and 23 minutes performed by men (ILO 2019, 2020).

Moreover, the part-time contract also has structural rigidities that make it a contractual instrument claimed to be flexible, but in fact inflexible. In spite of the clear provision of the law, with reference above all to certain particularly important life events for which the transformation of the employment relat...