Effective labour rights in the EU: towards a fair enforcement ecosystem

This article explores the strengths and limits of the current EU approach to ensuring the effective enforcement of its social acquis. It stresses the limits of the traditional approach, premised on centralised and decentralised judicial enforcement. It notes that some of these limitations are mitigated by a greater role for EU administrative bodies performing in a supervisory and (quasi-)enforcement capacity. But it also notes that the effective enforcement of, in particular, some of the new EPSR instruments will require a different approach, requiring greater emphasis on policy delivery, and a new role for both EU and national administrative bodies. It concludes by suggesting an ecosystem approach to the enforcement of the social acquis, and explores some of the possible elements of that ecosystem

The Future Concept of Work

This chapter offers a reappraisal of the idea of ‘personal work’ and a critical assessment of the concept of subordination, which shapes the traditional contract of employment and subordinate work. The authors suggest that the notion of personal work may be more useful in attempts to develop a newly conceptualised concept of human labour, one capable of incorporating certain dimensions of (unpaid) gendered labour, ‘heteromated’ labour (‘heteromation’ is the extraction of economic value from low-cost or free labour in computer-mediated networks), and other forms of socially (and ecologically) valuable labour that hitherto have been excluded from the realm of formal, protected and paid employment

“Lifting the Private-Law Veil”: Employer Authority and the “Contractual-Coating” of Worker Subordination

Despite the notion of subordination in work relations and the subjection of workers to the managerial prerogatives of employers have received significant consideration and discourse since the outset of labour law, critical examinations of the underlying foundations of such subordination and subjection in contemporary democracies founded on the rule of law remain scarce. This article wants to prompt a novel reflection on these issues, starting with a historical analysis of their origins and a renewed understanding of their legal background. It opens by discussing some outstanding issues concerning work subordination that are not adequately captured by the classic theory of the firm. It argues that the free nature of the individual negotiation of work arrangements at the dawn of industrialisation must be called into question from a legal perspective and highlights how disciplinary approaches to societies and work have materially shaped those arrangements. It then discusses the historical foundations of employer authority and worker subordination in what evolved into the modern contract of employment in various jurisdictions. It contends that, despite this authority and subordination being “coated” in contractual and private-law guises to make them acceptable for the public discourse, their origins are rooted in public law and action, sometimes with overtly authoritarian aims. It, then, argues that acknowledging the public origins of employer powers should prompt an intensified scrutiny of employer choices beyond what courts are ready to do for managerial conduct that falls short of meeting standards for harassment, constructive dismissal or resignation for cause. It concludes by outlining potential avenues for future research on how the “personal work approach” may offer insights into questioning worker subordination in contemporary democratic societies. This article is forthcoming in a special issue of the Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal titled New Perspectives on Worker Subordination , edited by Valerio De Stefano, Sara Slinn, and Eric Tucker

The EU, Competition Law and Workers Rights

As scholars and policymakers around the world seek a systematic approach to the question of 'gig work,' one of its regulatory dimensions – the intersection of labor and competition law – points toward a deeper reconceptualization of the conventional legal and economic categories typically brought to bear upon it. A comparative approach to the question of gig work further reveals the variety and contingency of background assumptions that are often overlooked in the context of domestic policy debates. By combining a detailed comparative doctrinal survey of the regulation of non-employee workers in domestic competition law systems with a set of essays reframing the underlying questions raised – in terms of international legal frameworks, freedom of association norms, alternative approaches to law and economics, and more – The Cambridge Handbook of Labor in Competition Law moves the debates over the fissured workplace and the labor – competition law intersection forward in novel ways

Institutional Solutions to Precariousness and Inequality in Labour Markets

It has become widely assumed that the standard employment relationship (SER) is in irreversible decline in industrialized societies. However, non-standard and precarious work relationships often complement the SER via labour market transitions, and are not displacing it as the focal point of labour market regulation. The co-ordination and risk management functions of the SER continue to be relevant in market economies, and the SER is adjusting to new conditions. The SER has a complex and evolving relationship to gender and to social stratification. In the European context where the SER originated and achieved its clearest legal expression, institutional solutions to precariousness and inequality are being developed, the most innovative of which avoid simple deregulation in favour of integrated policy responses involving a range of complementary regulatory mechanisms.We are grateful for funding from the Cambridge Political Economy Society TrustThis is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Wiley via http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/bjir.1210