Terminological and conceptual differences within the general discourse of labour and employment
law comprise the object of studies covering different research fields, e.g. Comparative
Labour Law, Industrial Relations, Legal Studies, Semiotics, Social Sciences, and
Translation Studies. A significant amount of scholarly attention has been paid to conceptual
differences arising from the notion of ‘termination’. In addition, a substantial body of research
has been devoted to the investigation of those concepts in the disciplines of labour law
and industrial relations which pose special challenges from a terminological point of view
when compared and contrasted with apparently similar notions in other national legal systems.
Taking as a point of departure the previous literature, this paper provides a comparative
analysis of some concepts associated with the termination of employment in a number
of countries, primarily considering aspects of relevant national labour laws, then further
investigating issues from both the linguistic and semantic point of view. The adopted approach
will be of an interdisciplinary nature, mainly involving notions pertaining to linguistics
and industrial relations. In this connection, this paper will examine a practical case, namely
the case of FIAT, a multinational with its headquarters in Italy. The system of labour law in
a number of countries where FIAT has employees will be briefly analysed, followed by some considerations of a terminological and conceptual nature. The analysis will point out a number
of questions in both linguistic and conceptual terms that are of interest in comparative
terms, as the result of different cultural, historical and political developments.