I have passed 22 years since that cursed evening in which a rather shabby and cowardly commando (they admitted that if the victim had been armed or escorted by a carabiniere they wouldn't have even tried) waited Marco Biagi under the house in via Valdonica Bologna (a stone's throw from the Two Towers, one of which, the Garisenda, is unsafe today) and killed him with the same gun used to kill, years earlier in Rome, Massimo D'Antona, a reformist labor law expert of the same generation as Biagi.
A death foretold
''There is only one variant – he wrote Umberto Romagnoli – which makes the crime of 19 March 2002 even more unacceptable and chilling: that of Marco was a death foretold to the victim, but the threats received were not believed by the public security authorities''.
In memory of Marco they were developed over this now long period of time several initiatives: a foundation in Modena in his name, presided over by Marina Orlandi, the companion of his life; a school of young talents, full of publications on labor and trade union law, led by Michele Tiraboschi, Marco's favorite student; a award for a degree or doctoral thesis of particular value, in addition to a series of meetings organized by the institutions. Many rooms in academies and public venues have been named in Biagi's memory. Every year then, the anniversary is remembered with conferences and cultural initiatives.
Biagi's contribution to labor law
Important was the contribution of Biagi's thought and work to labor law. We could say that Biagi is still among us because human beings must fear oblivion more than death. Indeed, I like to think that where he is now he is very pleased with the championship of Bologna FC, his favorite team which always took him to the stadium, together with his children (converted to the same football faith), on the days in which the ''squadron that trembled the world ago'' played at home. I remember that when Francesco, the eldest son, was in Mexico to complete his PhD, I made a point of informing him - via e-mail - about the outcome of Bologna's matches. I also believe that Marco is happy to have become a grandfather to two little girls and to watch over their growth from the heavenly Jerusalem. Martyrdom also shielded him from the most lacerating and personal criticisms, which came primarily from the academic world and which poisoned the last months of his life, when the working group coordinated by him presented the White Paper on labor market reform in the autumn of 2001 and Biagi translated the proposals contained therein into the bill which, once approved, still bears his name.
The “Biagi Law”
Ma in the back of my mind of many political and trade union leaders and legal practitioners Biagi remains the inventor of precariousness, as if the Moon existed only because someone points to it. Marco was convinced that flexibility in working relationships was an unavoidable requirement and that the jurist's task was to define rules to protect the worker. ''It is necessary to envisage - it was written in the White Paper - new contractual typologies that have the function of "cleaning up" the labor market from the improper use of some existing tools, in an evasive or fraudulent function of the legislation established to protect subordinate work, and which, at the same time, take into account the changed production and organizational needs''. He then continued, arguing that these interventions - which brought the law where it didn't exist - should be aimed at clearing the labor market from fraudulent abuses'': corrective interventions that are all the more urgent to eliminate those regulatory obstacles that still made it complicated to use of flexible contractual typologies, which were used (here is benchmarking) to a large extent in all European countries without this having led to situations of social exclusion or low quality of work.
Even for his enemies after March 19, 2002 it became very difficult not to pay homage to an intellectual who fell (like Ezio Tarantelli and Massimo D'Antona) in the field because of his beliefs and his work. But, if not the person, the Marco's thoughts remain noted in the Black Book of jurists and politicians who allowed the sanctity of the standard employment relationship to be tampered with. Then - nail crushes nail - the hostility towards the Biagi law was overcome by the more recent one reserved for the jobs act which succeeded in getting its hands on the regulation of the termination of the employment relationship with rules that are still ten years later matter of perennial controversy; the CGIL, in fact, has just decided to collect signatures for a referendum to repeal some provisions of the package attributable to the signature of the Jobs Act (an enabling law and related implementing legislative decrees).
The working group: only Biagi put his face to it
Il working group established by minister Roberto Maroni for the drafting of the White Book, it was coordinated by Maurizio Sacconi and Marco Biagi; also part of it were: Carlo Dell'Aringa, Natale Forlani, Paolo Reboani, Paolo Sestito. But it was Biagi, in those few months to put your face to it and to go around countering criticism. I remember that even the Labor Ministry wanted to meet the practicing Catholic Marco Biagi because it was concerned about the contents attributed to the White Paper that were contrary to the interests of workers. But the most bitter moment for Marco was the meeting/clash, held at the CNEL, with the academic world of labor jurists, largely critical of the White Paper, for ideological reasons, because they accused that document not so much with reference to specific issues , but for his ésprit de finesse which considered flexible relationships as legitimate and useful, if well regulated, and not as deviations from the sacred principles of permanent employment.
On that occasion Biagi, at the conclusion of the introductory report, although the White Paper had not dealt with that matter, took the liberty of expressing his opinion on theArticle 18 and reinstates her in the workplace, the issues then at the center of the debate. ''In my opinion – he said – all over the world the remedy for unfair dismissal lies in the logic of compensation. We are in the field of civil law which recognizes a single way to repair the damage suffered: that of compensation, perhaps large and timely, but compensation. The compulsion of obligations to act does not exist and in fact the Italian case says that reintegration is so marginal that it no longer has any reason to exist''.
