Professor Lydia Hayes explores how legal rights and duties shape the lives, livelihoods and life chances of people in low wage work. What she calls ‘working people’s law’ includes minimum employment standards, equality law, occupational regulation, trade union law, criminal law that applies specifically to work situations, and welfare rights. Her research is co-produced with low wage workers, it blends data gathered through community writing methods, story-telling, animation, and narrative production with rigorous analysis of statute, case law and regulatory text.
In this first UK study of ‘Workers using foodbanks’, 65 per cent of research participants, includ... more In this first UK study of ‘Workers using foodbanks’, 65 per cent of research participants, including 76 per cent of those of working age, identified poor-quality employment as the root cause of their food insecurity. This primary problem of the deficient quality of jobs was characterised by insecure work, low wages, and excessive mental stress. Data revealed an environment in which workers are required to claim benefits because available employment cannot sustain their needs.
A contemporary generation of ‘in-and-out-of-work[ers]’ are food insecure because of a secondary problem of inadequate welfare support. Post-pandemic welfare laws are interacting with ineffective employment rights protection to scaffold a low-wage labour market in which jobs are stripped of qualities that meet workers’ basic needs. There is an urgent need to respond to the UKs record high incidence of food insecurity by improving the quality of available employment so that all jobs deliver adequate income, security of working arrangements, and support for good mental and physical health.
‘Workers using foodbanks’ is an aphorism that captures a contemporary reality in which the risk of food insecurity is embedded in contractual arrangements for work that are forged at the nexus of welfare and employment laws.
Stories of Care: A Labour of Law. Gender & class at work, 2017
In Stories of care: a labour of law, Lydia Hayes argues that the UK’s crisis of social care is a ... more In Stories of care: a labour of law, Lydia Hayes argues that the UK’s crisis of social care is a product of the institutionalised humiliation of paid care workers – a process made possible by the gendered inadequacy of law. Her book provides significant insights into the working lives of homecare workers. Their experiences and opinions are captured in the character narratives through which the book is structured: Cheap Nurse, Two-a-Penny, Mother Superior and Choosy Suzy. Each is connected to a specific area of law at work: equal pay law, the legal protection of employment, minimum wage law, and workforce regulation via the Care Act 2014.
Vulnerability and the Legal Organisation of Work, 2017
This chapter suggests that the vulnerability of “community” is impacted by the gendering of labou... more This chapter suggests that the vulnerability of “community” is impacted by the gendering of labour law. Its assessment draws on interview research I conducted with homecare workers in England, women who are employed to provide essential support to older and disabled people living in their own homes. Central to the discussion is the narrative of a research participant to whom I have given the pseudonym “Sophie.” Like many other homecare workers with whom I spoke, Sophie was just days away from losing her job. The public-sector local authority for which she had worked for almost a decade was closing down its homecare department and transferring work to almost fifty separate private-sector organisations with which it had entered into service delivery contracts following a process of cost competitive tendering. Sophie’s story, set out in the following section, sheds light on what it means for an individual homecare worker and her service-user to physically experience the relocating of care services from the public to the private-sector. It draws attention to the apparent ease with which care services can move from one paradigm to another through the legal metaphor of contract, and its dissonance with the human experience of deep trauma as a consequence of service transfer.
The Post-fordist Sexual Contract: Working and Living in Contingency, 2016
Public interest in the surveillance of care workers employed to care for older and disabled adult... more Public interest in the surveillance of care workers employed to care for older and disabled adults is rising rapidly in the UK. A number of high profile exposés of elder abuse in private living spaces have fuelled concerns about the ability of regulatory agencies to protect vulnerable adults. News stories and court reports provide accounts of the circumstances in which families take matters into their own hands and use CCTV or hidden cameras to gather evidence about the abuse of older people receiving care; either in institutional settings or in their own private homes. The post-Fordist deregulation of employment in the care sector, together with a lack of public confidence in the statutory bodies responsible for care standards, has created conditions in which surveillance has emerged as a new regulatory dynamic.
In this chapter, I draw on interviews with homecare workers providing care under conditions of surveillance in private houses. By exploring the impact of CCTV from the perspective of the homecare workforce, it is evident that its introduction is neither neutral nor inconsequential.
At a time when the European Court of Human Rights has recognised that both collective bargaining ... more At a time when the European Court of Human Rights has recognised that both collective bargaining and the right to strike are intrinsic to freedom of association, the current UK legislative regime and case law make it very difficult for trade unions to call lawful industrial action. This report sets out key features of UK labour legislation alongside the response of UK courts to transnational and supranational legal sources (Council of Europe, European Union and ILO). We acknowledge scope for cooperative judicial structures, which have not been realized in the UK context. Recent EU jurisprudence in the Viking and Laval cases has had significant impact in the UK, which has to be understood against the background of pre-existing barriers to lawful exercise of the right to strike. We identify three effects of recent EU legal developments: a chilling effect, a ripple effect and a disruptive effect. EU case law has a chilling effect due to the willingness of UK judges to issue interim injunctions which prevent industrial action where there is an arguable case that action is unlawful and the 'balance of convenience' lies in the employer's favour. This means that where there is any risk of illegality under EU law, such as where there is a cross-border dimension to the dispute or involvement of posted workers, the employer can threaten to seek injunctive relief, which seems likely to be granted without any hearing as to the merits of the dispute. Moreover, unions face potential unlimited liability in damages if a strike, otherwise lawful in the UK, is found to be unlawful because of a breach of 1 Lydia Hayes is a former Education Officer for UNITE THE UNION and a doctoral student at the University of Bristol; Tonia Novitz is Professor of Labour Law at the University of Bristol; Hannah Reed is Legal Advisor for the Trades Union Congress (TUC). 202 EU free movement provisions. The ripple effect arises insofar as Laval case law impedes unions' ability to bargain on behalf of migrant workers, since that jurisprudence indicates that industrial action seeking recognition in respect of posted workers is unlawful. The UK has no system to extend existing collective agreements to cover such workers. In addition, there is now uncertainty as to whether the full statutory employment rights which currently cover such workers will continue to do so. Further uncertainty arises in respect of disclosure requirements in cases involving industrial action. The final disruptive effect arises in the context of mounting evidence of systematic abuse of employment rights amongst foreign workers in the UK, including posted workers. Where trade unions cannot risk calling industrial action to protect the interests of migrant workers' or those of local workers who see their terms and conditions undercut, wildcat strike action may seem attractive. The reluctance of trade unions to engage in cross-border disputes, due to the threat of legal liability, makes it more difficult for them to address and to diffuse nationalistic sentiment. The result is disruption of what could otherwise be orderly, peaceful and productive industrial relations. Our conclusion is that the situation in the UK could be improved if a Social Progress Clause were incorporated into the EU treaties, so as to ensure proper consideration of social rights, the function of trade unions within a democratic society and of the purpose of collective bargaining.
A posted worker is a European Union (EU) worker who is sent from one EU Member State to another b... more A posted worker is a European Union (EU) worker who is sent from one EU Member State to another by an employer known as a ‘service provider’. These are workers who are said to return to ‘their country of origin after the completion of their work without at any time gaining access to the labour market of the host Member State’, and are in this way legally constructed as workers ‘without footprints’.
We argue that the notion that posted workers do not ‘gain access’ to the labour market of a host State is problematic, especially ‘hard times’ of financial crisis or recession. Our concerns are threefold.
First, the terms on which posted workers are hired are more lightly regulated than host State workers, being subject only to those minimum standards which a host State is allowed to set under EU law. Opportunities to engage in collective bargaining over their wages have been limited by EU law. This allows their employers to undercut existing established terms and conditions for host State workers, which in times of fierce competition for work, has led to both legitimate concerns relating to access to work for host State workers and the expression of xenophobia.
Second, the lack of visibility of posted workers allows scope for poor treatment. As migrants from another State, posted workers are often isolated in terms of language, but the available evidence suggests instances where this can be compounded by forms of segregated housing and exposure to dangerous working conditions. The circumstances in which posted workers work lead to de facto deprivation of access to a home State union representative and to that of relevant host State unions. We argue that this capacity for breach of rights to freedom of association and access to justice is compounded by the current state of EU law regarding access to collective bargaining regarding terms of posted work. It is also complicated by an absence of norms at EU level which would assist in determining when a posting is truly temporary or should be regarded as a sham merely designed to evade full entitlements to non-discriminatory terms and conditions.
Our contention is that there is, accordingly, a strong case for legal reform at the EU level. What is curious, however, is the perpetuation of the fiction that posted workers do not gain access to the labour market and the attempt to replicate it in other spheres. We are now witnessing international legal recognition of posting as a practice in the context of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). Further, there have been recent proposals that rights of third country nationals in respect of intra-corporate transfers and seasonal work be constructed in accordance with a ‘posted workers’ model. This extension of an already problematic regime merits further attention in the light of the various human rights concerns highlighted here.
In this chapter we discuss how women have been variously included and represented in academic wor... more In this chapter we discuss how women have been variously included and represented in academic work published in the UK ' s Industrial Law Journal from 1972 – 2013. On a historic view, the frequency with which women have been included as the subjects of research arguably coincides with contemporaneous social and political concerns. Their inclusion is also heavily dependent upon legal context and varies according to the application of empirical and/or doctrinal methods. Women are principally the subjects of research in stereotypical contexts relating to motherhood, marriage and a gendered perception of their participation in the labour market as problematic. Their representation in relation to such a constrained range of topics may impede the potential for labour law scholarship to conceive of women as workers more broadly. However , when this labour law scholarship engages strongly with issues of gender we fi nd it is frequently enriched by empirical data and applies insights drawn from disciplines outside of law. Further, there is evidence to suggest that labour law scholars are increasingly using empirical methods to gather their own original data and develop specifi c, evidence-based critique. This latter approach appears particularly likely to explore gender from the perspective of the work women are employed to perform, and the contractual terms under which they are engaged. The implication is of a labour law empiricism moving beyond its ' magpie ' traditions of using data from elsewhere, which seeks instead to explore gender as a social relation constructed through work. We argue that the trajectory of women in labour law scholarship examined here points towards the possibility of a more rounded account of women as subjects of labour law.
This chapter explores the electronic monitoring (EM) of homecare work in the UK in terms of its i... more This chapter explores the electronic monitoring (EM) of homecare work in the UK in terms of its impact upon care workers and the employment relationship. It considers the rationale for the use of EM and how far EM is designed to protect workers (Ball 2010) and service users, but may, in the context of the local authority commissioning process, involve not only the surveillance of workers but also the reconfiguration of paid and unpaid working time. This reconfiguration can redefine homecare workers' labour in both quantitative and qualitative terms. Commissioning on the basis of 'client contact only payments' (where providers are paid only for the time that care workers are in the service-user's home) excises so-called 'unproductive' labour and undermines worker autonomy and discretion, but also the relational aspects of care.
This chapter suggests that the vulnerability of “community” is impacted by the gendering of labou... more This chapter suggests that the vulnerability of “community” is impacted by the gendering of labour law. Its assessment draws on interview research I conducted with homecare workers in England, women who are employed to provide essential support to older and disabled people living in their own homes. Central to the discussion is the narrative of a research participant to whom I have given the pseudonym “Sophie.” Like many other homecare workers with whom I spoke, Sophie was just days away from losing her job. The public-sector local authority for which she had worked for almost a decade was closing down its homecare department and transferring work to almost fifty separate private-sector organisations with which it had entered into service delivery contracts following a process of cost competitive tendering. Sophie’s story, set out in the following section, sheds light on what it means for an individual homecare worker and her service-user to physically experience the relocating of care services from the public to the private-sector. It draws attention to the apparent ease with which care services can move from one paradigm to another through the legal metaphor of contract, and its dissonance with the human experience of deep trauma as a consequence of service transfer.
How is unpaid labour established in the UK homecare industry? This chapter is focused on homecare... more How is unpaid labour established in the UK homecare industry? This chapter is focused on homecare workers' internal notations of time and defines zero-hours employment contracts and the electronic monitoring of service provision as technologies of time. It shows how time is materialised through labour. Technologies of time impact on care workers' temporal consciousness by fracturing notations of clock time across four separate dials and economically subordinating caregiving according to nature's time. Hence labour apprehended in nature's time materialises as unpaid work, and labour in clock time materialises as partially paid work. This is a challenging temporal environment for labour law since legal protections frequently accrue by a measure of clock time according to a single dial, which is also presumed to measure paid time.
This chapter suggests that the vulnerability of “community” is impacted by the gendering of labou... more This chapter suggests that the vulnerability of “community” is impacted by the gendering of labour law. Its assessment draws on interview research I conducted with homecare workers in England, women who are employed to provide essential support to older and disabled people living in their own homes. Central to the discussion is the narrative of a research participant to whom I have given the pseudonym “Sophie.” Like many other homecare workers with whom I spoke, Sophie was just days away from losing her job. The public-sector local authority for which she had worked for almost a decade was closing down its homecare department and transferring work to almost fifty separate private-sector organisations with which it had entered into service delivery contracts following a process of cost competitive tendering. Sophie’s story, set out in the following section, sheds light on what it means for an individual homecare worker and her service-user to physically experience the relocating of care services from the public to the private-sector. It draws attention to the apparent ease with which care services can move from one paradigm to another through the legal metaphor of contract, and its dissonance with the human experience of deep trauma as a consequence of service transfer.
In this first UK study of ‘Workers using foodbanks’, 65 per cent of research participants, includ... more In this first UK study of ‘Workers using foodbanks’, 65 per cent of research participants, including 76 per cent of those of working age, identified poor-quality employment as the root cause of their food insecurity. This primary problem of the deficient quality of jobs was characterised by insecure work, low wages, and excessive mental stress. Data revealed an environment in which workers are required to claim benefits because available employment cannot sustain their needs.
A contemporary generation of ‘in-and-out-of-work[ers]’ are food insecure because of a secondary problem of inadequate welfare support. Post-pandemic welfare laws are interacting with ineffective employment rights protection to scaffold a low-wage labour market in which jobs are stripped of qualities that meet workers’ basic needs. There is an urgent need to respond to the UKs record high incidence of food insecurity by improving the quality of available employment so that all jobs deliver adequate income, security of working arrangements, and support for good mental and physical health.
‘Workers using foodbanks’ is an aphorism that captures a contemporary reality in which the risk of food insecurity is embedded in contractual arrangements for work that are forged at the nexus of welfare and employment laws.
Stories of Care: A Labour of Law. Gender & class at work, 2017
In Stories of care: a labour of law, Lydia Hayes argues that the UK’s crisis of social care is a ... more In Stories of care: a labour of law, Lydia Hayes argues that the UK’s crisis of social care is a product of the institutionalised humiliation of paid care workers – a process made possible by the gendered inadequacy of law. Her book provides significant insights into the working lives of homecare workers. Their experiences and opinions are captured in the character narratives through which the book is structured: Cheap Nurse, Two-a-Penny, Mother Superior and Choosy Suzy. Each is connected to a specific area of law at work: equal pay law, the legal protection of employment, minimum wage law, and workforce regulation via the Care Act 2014.
Vulnerability and the Legal Organisation of Work, 2017
This chapter suggests that the vulnerability of “community” is impacted by the gendering of labou... more This chapter suggests that the vulnerability of “community” is impacted by the gendering of labour law. Its assessment draws on interview research I conducted with homecare workers in England, women who are employed to provide essential support to older and disabled people living in their own homes. Central to the discussion is the narrative of a research participant to whom I have given the pseudonym “Sophie.” Like many other homecare workers with whom I spoke, Sophie was just days away from losing her job. The public-sector local authority for which she had worked for almost a decade was closing down its homecare department and transferring work to almost fifty separate private-sector organisations with which it had entered into service delivery contracts following a process of cost competitive tendering. Sophie’s story, set out in the following section, sheds light on what it means for an individual homecare worker and her service-user to physically experience the relocating of care services from the public to the private-sector. It draws attention to the apparent ease with which care services can move from one paradigm to another through the legal metaphor of contract, and its dissonance with the human experience of deep trauma as a consequence of service transfer.
The Post-fordist Sexual Contract: Working and Living in Contingency, 2016
Public interest in the surveillance of care workers employed to care for older and disabled adult... more Public interest in the surveillance of care workers employed to care for older and disabled adults is rising rapidly in the UK. A number of high profile exposés of elder abuse in private living spaces have fuelled concerns about the ability of regulatory agencies to protect vulnerable adults. News stories and court reports provide accounts of the circumstances in which families take matters into their own hands and use CCTV or hidden cameras to gather evidence about the abuse of older people receiving care; either in institutional settings or in their own private homes. The post-Fordist deregulation of employment in the care sector, together with a lack of public confidence in the statutory bodies responsible for care standards, has created conditions in which surveillance has emerged as a new regulatory dynamic.
In this chapter, I draw on interviews with homecare workers providing care under conditions of surveillance in private houses. By exploring the impact of CCTV from the perspective of the homecare workforce, it is evident that its introduction is neither neutral nor inconsequential.
At a time when the European Court of Human Rights has recognised that both collective bargaining ... more At a time when the European Court of Human Rights has recognised that both collective bargaining and the right to strike are intrinsic to freedom of association, the current UK legislative regime and case law make it very difficult for trade unions to call lawful industrial action. This report sets out key features of UK labour legislation alongside the response of UK courts to transnational and supranational legal sources (Council of Europe, European Union and ILO). We acknowledge scope for cooperative judicial structures, which have not been realized in the UK context. Recent EU jurisprudence in the Viking and Laval cases has had significant impact in the UK, which has to be understood against the background of pre-existing barriers to lawful exercise of the right to strike. We identify three effects of recent EU legal developments: a chilling effect, a ripple effect and a disruptive effect. EU case law has a chilling effect due to the willingness of UK judges to issue interim injunctions which prevent industrial action where there is an arguable case that action is unlawful and the 'balance of convenience' lies in the employer's favour. This means that where there is any risk of illegality under EU law, such as where there is a cross-border dimension to the dispute or involvement of posted workers, the employer can threaten to seek injunctive relief, which seems likely to be granted without any hearing as to the merits of the dispute. Moreover, unions face potential unlimited liability in damages if a strike, otherwise lawful in the UK, is found to be unlawful because of a breach of 1 Lydia Hayes is a former Education Officer for UNITE THE UNION and a doctoral student at the University of Bristol; Tonia Novitz is Professor of Labour Law at the University of Bristol; Hannah Reed is Legal Advisor for the Trades Union Congress (TUC). 202 EU free movement provisions. The ripple effect arises insofar as Laval case law impedes unions' ability to bargain on behalf of migrant workers, since that jurisprudence indicates that industrial action seeking recognition in respect of posted workers is unlawful. The UK has no system to extend existing collective agreements to cover such workers. In addition, there is now uncertainty as to whether the full statutory employment rights which currently cover such workers will continue to do so. Further uncertainty arises in respect of disclosure requirements in cases involving industrial action. The final disruptive effect arises in the context of mounting evidence of systematic abuse of employment rights amongst foreign workers in the UK, including posted workers. Where trade unions cannot risk calling industrial action to protect the interests of migrant workers' or those of local workers who see their terms and conditions undercut, wildcat strike action may seem attractive. The reluctance of trade unions to engage in cross-border disputes, due to the threat of legal liability, makes it more difficult for them to address and to diffuse nationalistic sentiment. The result is disruption of what could otherwise be orderly, peaceful and productive industrial relations. Our conclusion is that the situation in the UK could be improved if a Social Progress Clause were incorporated into the EU treaties, so as to ensure proper consideration of social rights, the function of trade unions within a democratic society and of the purpose of collective bargaining.
A posted worker is a European Union (EU) worker who is sent from one EU Member State to another b... more A posted worker is a European Union (EU) worker who is sent from one EU Member State to another by an employer known as a ‘service provider’. These are workers who are said to return to ‘their country of origin after the completion of their work without at any time gaining access to the labour market of the host Member State’, and are in this way legally constructed as workers ‘without footprints’.
We argue that the notion that posted workers do not ‘gain access’ to the labour market of a host State is problematic, especially ‘hard times’ of financial crisis or recession. Our concerns are threefold.
First, the terms on which posted workers are hired are more lightly regulated than host State workers, being subject only to those minimum standards which a host State is allowed to set under EU law. Opportunities to engage in collective bargaining over their wages have been limited by EU law. This allows their employers to undercut existing established terms and conditions for host State workers, which in times of fierce competition for work, has led to both legitimate concerns relating to access to work for host State workers and the expression of xenophobia.
Second, the lack of visibility of posted workers allows scope for poor treatment. As migrants from another State, posted workers are often isolated in terms of language, but the available evidence suggests instances where this can be compounded by forms of segregated housing and exposure to dangerous working conditions. The circumstances in which posted workers work lead to de facto deprivation of access to a home State union representative and to that of relevant host State unions. We argue that this capacity for breach of rights to freedom of association and access to justice is compounded by the current state of EU law regarding access to collective bargaining regarding terms of posted work. It is also complicated by an absence of norms at EU level which would assist in determining when a posting is truly temporary or should be regarded as a sham merely designed to evade full entitlements to non-discriminatory terms and conditions.
Our contention is that there is, accordingly, a strong case for legal reform at the EU level. What is curious, however, is the perpetuation of the fiction that posted workers do not gain access to the labour market and the attempt to replicate it in other spheres. We are now witnessing international legal recognition of posting as a practice in the context of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). Further, there have been recent proposals that rights of third country nationals in respect of intra-corporate transfers and seasonal work be constructed in accordance with a ‘posted workers’ model. This extension of an already problematic regime merits further attention in the light of the various human rights concerns highlighted here.
In this chapter we discuss how women have been variously included and represented in academic wor... more In this chapter we discuss how women have been variously included and represented in academic work published in the UK ' s Industrial Law Journal from 1972 – 2013. On a historic view, the frequency with which women have been included as the subjects of research arguably coincides with contemporaneous social and political concerns. Their inclusion is also heavily dependent upon legal context and varies according to the application of empirical and/or doctrinal methods. Women are principally the subjects of research in stereotypical contexts relating to motherhood, marriage and a gendered perception of their participation in the labour market as problematic. Their representation in relation to such a constrained range of topics may impede the potential for labour law scholarship to conceive of women as workers more broadly. However , when this labour law scholarship engages strongly with issues of gender we fi nd it is frequently enriched by empirical data and applies insights drawn from disciplines outside of law. Further, there is evidence to suggest that labour law scholars are increasingly using empirical methods to gather their own original data and develop specifi c, evidence-based critique. This latter approach appears particularly likely to explore gender from the perspective of the work women are employed to perform, and the contractual terms under which they are engaged. The implication is of a labour law empiricism moving beyond its ' magpie ' traditions of using data from elsewhere, which seeks instead to explore gender as a social relation constructed through work. We argue that the trajectory of women in labour law scholarship examined here points towards the possibility of a more rounded account of women as subjects of labour law.
This chapter explores the electronic monitoring (EM) of homecare work in the UK in terms of its i... more This chapter explores the electronic monitoring (EM) of homecare work in the UK in terms of its impact upon care workers and the employment relationship. It considers the rationale for the use of EM and how far EM is designed to protect workers (Ball 2010) and service users, but may, in the context of the local authority commissioning process, involve not only the surveillance of workers but also the reconfiguration of paid and unpaid working time. This reconfiguration can redefine homecare workers' labour in both quantitative and qualitative terms. Commissioning on the basis of 'client contact only payments' (where providers are paid only for the time that care workers are in the service-user's home) excises so-called 'unproductive' labour and undermines worker autonomy and discretion, but also the relational aspects of care.
This chapter suggests that the vulnerability of “community” is impacted by the gendering of labou... more This chapter suggests that the vulnerability of “community” is impacted by the gendering of labour law. Its assessment draws on interview research I conducted with homecare workers in England, women who are employed to provide essential support to older and disabled people living in their own homes. Central to the discussion is the narrative of a research participant to whom I have given the pseudonym “Sophie.” Like many other homecare workers with whom I spoke, Sophie was just days away from losing her job. The public-sector local authority for which she had worked for almost a decade was closing down its homecare department and transferring work to almost fifty separate private-sector organisations with which it had entered into service delivery contracts following a process of cost competitive tendering. Sophie’s story, set out in the following section, sheds light on what it means for an individual homecare worker and her service-user to physically experience the relocating of care services from the public to the private-sector. It draws attention to the apparent ease with which care services can move from one paradigm to another through the legal metaphor of contract, and its dissonance with the human experience of deep trauma as a consequence of service transfer.
How is unpaid labour established in the UK homecare industry? This chapter is focused on homecare... more How is unpaid labour established in the UK homecare industry? This chapter is focused on homecare workers' internal notations of time and defines zero-hours employment contracts and the electronic monitoring of service provision as technologies of time. It shows how time is materialised through labour. Technologies of time impact on care workers' temporal consciousness by fracturing notations of clock time across four separate dials and economically subordinating caregiving according to nature's time. Hence labour apprehended in nature's time materialises as unpaid work, and labour in clock time materialises as partially paid work. This is a challenging temporal environment for labour law since legal protections frequently accrue by a measure of clock time according to a single dial, which is also presumed to measure paid time.
This chapter suggests that the vulnerability of “community” is impacted by the gendering of labou... more This chapter suggests that the vulnerability of “community” is impacted by the gendering of labour law. Its assessment draws on interview research I conducted with homecare workers in England, women who are employed to provide essential support to older and disabled people living in their own homes. Central to the discussion is the narrative of a research participant to whom I have given the pseudonym “Sophie.” Like many other homecare workers with whom I spoke, Sophie was just days away from losing her job. The public-sector local authority for which she had worked for almost a decade was closing down its homecare department and transferring work to almost fifty separate private-sector organisations with which it had entered into service delivery contracts following a process of cost competitive tendering. Sophie’s story, set out in the following section, sheds light on what it means for an individual homecare worker and her service-user to physically experience the relocating of care services from the public to the private-sector. It draws attention to the apparent ease with which care services can move from one paradigm to another through the legal metaphor of contract, and its dissonance with the human experience of deep trauma as a consequence of service transfer.
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Research papers by Lydia J B Hayes
A contemporary generation of ‘in-and-out-of-work[ers]’ are food insecure because of a secondary problem of inadequate welfare support. Post-pandemic welfare laws are interacting with ineffective employment rights protection to scaffold a low-wage labour market in which jobs are stripped
of qualities that meet workers’ basic needs. There is an urgent need to respond to the UKs record high incidence of food insecurity by improving the quality of available employment so that all jobs deliver adequate income, security of working arrangements, and support for good mental and physical health.
‘Workers using foodbanks’ is an aphorism that captures a contemporary reality in which the risk of food insecurity is embedded in contractual arrangements for work that are forged at the nexus of welfare and employment laws.
In this chapter, I draw on interviews with homecare workers providing care under conditions of surveillance in private houses. By exploring the impact of CCTV from the perspective of the homecare workforce, it is evident that its introduction is neither neutral nor inconsequential.
We argue that the notion that posted workers do not ‘gain access’ to the labour market of a host State is problematic, especially ‘hard times’ of financial crisis or recession. Our concerns are threefold.
First, the terms on which posted workers are hired are more lightly regulated than host State workers, being subject only to those minimum standards which a host State is allowed to set under EU law. Opportunities to engage in collective bargaining over their wages have been limited by EU law. This allows their employers to undercut existing established terms and conditions for host State workers, which in times of fierce competition for work, has led to both legitimate concerns relating to access to work for host State workers and the expression of xenophobia.
Second, the lack of visibility of posted workers allows scope for poor treatment. As migrants from another State, posted workers are often isolated in terms of language, but the available evidence suggests instances where this can be compounded by forms of segregated housing and exposure to dangerous working conditions. The circumstances in which posted workers work lead to de facto deprivation of access to a home State union representative and to that of relevant host State unions. We argue that this capacity for breach of rights to freedom of association and access to justice is compounded by the current state of EU law regarding access to collective bargaining regarding terms of posted work. It is also complicated by an absence of norms at EU level which would assist in determining when a posting is truly temporary or should be regarded as a sham merely designed to evade full entitlements to non-discriminatory terms and conditions.
Our contention is that there is, accordingly, a strong case for legal reform at the EU level. What is curious, however, is the perpetuation of the fiction that posted workers do not gain access to the labour market and the attempt to replicate it in other spheres. We are now witnessing international legal recognition of posting as a practice in the context of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). Further, there have been recent proposals that rights of third country nationals in respect of intra-corporate transfers and seasonal work be constructed in accordance with a ‘posted workers’ model. This extension of an already problematic regime merits further attention in the light of the various human rights concerns highlighted here.
A contemporary generation of ‘in-and-out-of-work[ers]’ are food insecure because of a secondary problem of inadequate welfare support. Post-pandemic welfare laws are interacting with ineffective employment rights protection to scaffold a low-wage labour market in which jobs are stripped
of qualities that meet workers’ basic needs. There is an urgent need to respond to the UKs record high incidence of food insecurity by improving the quality of available employment so that all jobs deliver adequate income, security of working arrangements, and support for good mental and physical health.
‘Workers using foodbanks’ is an aphorism that captures a contemporary reality in which the risk of food insecurity is embedded in contractual arrangements for work that are forged at the nexus of welfare and employment laws.
In this chapter, I draw on interviews with homecare workers providing care under conditions of surveillance in private houses. By exploring the impact of CCTV from the perspective of the homecare workforce, it is evident that its introduction is neither neutral nor inconsequential.
We argue that the notion that posted workers do not ‘gain access’ to the labour market of a host State is problematic, especially ‘hard times’ of financial crisis or recession. Our concerns are threefold.
First, the terms on which posted workers are hired are more lightly regulated than host State workers, being subject only to those minimum standards which a host State is allowed to set under EU law. Opportunities to engage in collective bargaining over their wages have been limited by EU law. This allows their employers to undercut existing established terms and conditions for host State workers, which in times of fierce competition for work, has led to both legitimate concerns relating to access to work for host State workers and the expression of xenophobia.
Second, the lack of visibility of posted workers allows scope for poor treatment. As migrants from another State, posted workers are often isolated in terms of language, but the available evidence suggests instances where this can be compounded by forms of segregated housing and exposure to dangerous working conditions. The circumstances in which posted workers work lead to de facto deprivation of access to a home State union representative and to that of relevant host State unions. We argue that this capacity for breach of rights to freedom of association and access to justice is compounded by the current state of EU law regarding access to collective bargaining regarding terms of posted work. It is also complicated by an absence of norms at EU level which would assist in determining when a posting is truly temporary or should be regarded as a sham merely designed to evade full entitlements to non-discriminatory terms and conditions.
Our contention is that there is, accordingly, a strong case for legal reform at the EU level. What is curious, however, is the perpetuation of the fiction that posted workers do not gain access to the labour market and the attempt to replicate it in other spheres. We are now witnessing international legal recognition of posting as a practice in the context of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). Further, there have been recent proposals that rights of third country nationals in respect of intra-corporate transfers and seasonal work be constructed in accordance with a ‘posted workers’ model. This extension of an already problematic regime merits further attention in the light of the various human rights concerns highlighted here.