The course content concerns the legal-institutional dimension of collective labour relations. It illustrates the system of sources in the international, European Union and domestic legal system aimed at guaranteeing the freedom of association and the right to strike as fundamental workers' rights; the notion of inter-union order; the actors of the industrial relations system at central and decentralised levels, the issue of trade union representation and representativeness, with particular regard to workers' representations in the workplace and the regulation contained in the Workers' Statute. The second part is devoted to trade union activity and to the collective agreement as an instrument for the settlement of collective interests, collective bargaining as a system autonomously regulated by the actors of industrial relations, the relationships between law and collective agreement and between collective agreements of different levels, trade union relations in the civil service, and social consultation/concertation with the State. Finally, the course deals with collective conflict and the right to strike, the limits of exercise in essential public services, the lock-out and other forms of industrial action.