I think the mafia is overhyped and an easy way of keeping up the fiction of a clear separation between good and bad, citizens and criminals, oppressed and oppressors.
In this specific case, there is no need whatsoever for the threatening employee to be part of a criminal association. In a land where many people have little to lose and are, by culture, prone to up their threats until they have their way, victims are afraid of refusing their requests. This in turn further encourages the behaviour. The issue, more than the power of the mafia, is the weakness of the state: extremely slow, sloppy and reluctant in prosecuting crime (big or small), very quick in pardoning convicted criminals.
In this specific case, there is no need whatsoever for the threatening employee to be part of a criminal association. In a land where many people have little to lose and are, by culture, prone to up their threats until they have their way, victims are afraid of refusing their requests. This in turn further encourages the behaviour. The issue, more than the power of the mafia, is the weakness of the state: extremely slow, sloppy and reluctant in prosecuting crime (big or small), very quick in pardoning convicted criminals.
(Italian here, too)