Revista da EMERJ - V. 22 - N.1 - Janeiro/Março - 2020

 R. EMERJ, Rio de Janeiro, v. 22, n. 1, p. 11 - 26, Janeiro-Março. 2020  24 regard to ‘collaborative’ procedures, which in some cases may imply the intervention of a mediator, it is remarkable that in recent years the movement of collaborative lawyers has rooted and grown significantly in Italy as well. A radically different outlook can be seen in labour media- tion, too. For several years (from 1998 to 2010), a mandatory me- diation referral was in force for all labour disputes. However, the system was completely ineffective. Conciliation commissions, bureaucratically complex to form and manage, were not even composed by real mediators, but by ministry officials and trade unionists. The time allotted to complete the mediation was insu- fficient, considering the backlog, and the parties thus proceeded to trial before they had even tried to mediate. The figures for the last year of compulsory conciliation operation, before it returned to be voluntary, shows that only 23% of referred disputes had been mediated in the private sector, while in the public sector the percentage had decreased to 18%. The practice resulted in going to mediation only in order to ratify a settlement that had already taken place between the parties. In addition to these reasons that make labour matters un- suitable to compulsory mediation, Italian law is quite restrictive in relation to labour disputes: it obstructs facilitated negotiation by private neutrals of the worker’s rights, both when those rights are not freely negotiable, and when they derive from mandatory provisions. In fact, today, no significant mediation activity can be reported in this field. CONCLUSION: THE CONFIRMATION OF THE DISCIPLINE The mediation scene in Italy is particularly lively and chal- lenging these days. The trend of mediations, including both the number of procedures and that of reached agreements, is growing, albeit at different speeds depending on the specific matter and on the type of mediation used. In January 2017, a ministerial committee (Commissione Alpa), which was in charge to evaluate the application and the