Freedom of association for employers: new forms of representation of collective interests.

This paper analyzes the evolution of employers’ freedom of association in the face of the crisis affecting twentieth-century confederal models and the emergence of new forms of disintermediated representation and issue-based lobbying. Having examined the peculiar nature of the employers’ interest as a synthesis among competing market actors, the study investigates the impact of the digital transition and production fragmentation on traditional associational dynamics. In this context, the essay highlights how the regulatory vacuum on lobbying represents a missed opportunity to institutionalize emerging pluralism. In conclusion, the research identifies the conditions for the system’s resilience in defining objective criteria to measure employers’ representativeness -essential to counteract contract dumping - and in converting historical associations into providers of complex, high-value technological and regulatory services.