Restricted accessResearch articleFirst published online 2024-9
Strategic labour inspection in fissured workplaces and transnational employment relations: Lessons from co-enforcement approaches and transgovernmental cooperation
This paper examines strategic enforcement approaches relying on co-enforcement and transgovernmentalist. It examines three cases in the construction industry in Austria, Asturias (Spain), and Poland, as well as three cases in maritime shipping in Finland, Spain, and Poland, focussing on Labour Inspection’s (LI)s motivations for engaging in co-enforcement and transnational cooperation. Data collection involved desk research, semi-structured interviews (39 construction and 14 in maritime), observation of inspections, and participant observation in EU seminars we organised together with regulatory actors (specific details are provided in the appendix). Findings show that LI’s selection of co-enforcement and transnational alliances are driven by the specific and highly contingent challenges each organisation faces. LI organisations are seeking to exploit synergies, but both the material reality and perception of these depends on diverse pre-existing infrastructures and organisation-specific assets.
AlhoR (2013) Trade union responses to transnational labour mobility in the Finnish-Estonian context. Nordic Journal of Working Life Studies3(3): 133–154.
2.
AmengualMFineJ (2017) Co-enforcing Labor standards: the unique contributions of state and worker organizations in Argentina and the United States: Co-enforcing labor standards. Regulation & Governance11(2): 129–142.
3.
ArnholtzJLillieN (eds) (2019) Posted Work in the European Union: The Political Economy of Free Movement. 1st edn.Routledge.
4.
ArnholtzJLillieN (2023) Posted work as an extreme case of hierarchised mobility. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies49(16): 4206–4223.
5.
AstleithnerFFleckerJ (2017) From the golden age to the gilded cage? Austrian trade unions, social partnership and the crisis. In: LehndorffSDribbuschHSchultenT (eds) Rough Waters – European Trade Unions in a Time of Crisis, pp. 185–208. Brussels: ETUI.
6.
BehlingFHarveyM (2015) The evolution of false self-employment in the British construction industry: a neo-Polanyian account of labour market formation. Work, Employment & Society29(6): 969–988.
7.
BernaciakM (2013) Social dialogue revival or “PR corporatism”? Negotiating anti-crisis measures in Poland and Bulgaria1. Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research19(2): 239–251.
8.
ČaněkM (2018) Transnational Cooperation Among Labour Regulation Enforcement Agencies in Europe: Challenges and Opportunities Related to the Posting of Workers.
CzarzastyJMrozowickiA (2022) ‘Unilateral crisis prevention and crumbling social partnership in Poland’, in EbbinghausBWeishauptTJ (eds) The Role of Social Partners in Managing Europe’s Great Recession. London/New York: Routledge, pp. 121–143.
11.
De BaetsP (2003) The labour inspection of Belgium, the United Kingdom and Sweden in a comparative perspective. International Journal of the Sociology of Law31(1): 35–53.
12.
DG for Mobility and Transport (EC) (2020) Study on Social Aspects within the Maritime Transport Sector: Final Report. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union. Available at:https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2832/49520 (Accessed: 3 August 2023).
13.
EPSU (2012) Mapping Report on Labour Inspection Services in 15 European Countries. Brussels: European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU).
FineJ (2017) Enforcing labor standards in partnership with civil society: can Co-enforcement succeed where the state alone has failed?Politics & Society45(3): 359–388.
GeyerLPremrovTDanajS (2022) Posted workers from and to Austria: characteristics, violations and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Leuven. Available at:https://www.euro.centre.org/downloads/detail/4317
18.
GrahamCAWaltersD (2021) Representation of seafarers’ occupational safety and health: limits of the maritime labour convention. Economic and Labour Relations Review32(2): 266–282.
19.
GrazianoA (2017) Port state control inspections in the European Union: do inspector’s number and background matter?Marine Policy88: 230–241.
20.
GrazianoAMejiaMHinrichsS- (2018) Achievements and challenges on the implementation of the European directive on port state control. Transport Policy72: 97–108.
21.
HardyTHoweJ (2015) Chain reaction: a strategic approach to addressing employment noncompliance in complex supply chains. Journal of Industrial Relations57(4): 563–584.
22.
HartlappMHeidbrederEG (2018) Mending the hole in multilevel implementation: administrative cooperation related to worker mobility. Governance31(1): 27–43.
23.
HuwilerUJMauronV (2019) Flankierende Massnahmen: 15 Jahre Lohnschutz. Die Volkswirtschaft, 43–46.
24.
IannuzziFESacchettoD (2019) Italian labour inspectors facing posted workers phenomena. In: ArnholtzJLillieN (eds) Posted Work in the European Union. Routledge, 109–127.
25.
KeohaneRONyeJS (1974) Transgovernmental relations and international organizations. World Politics27(1): 39–62.
26.
KeuneMPedaciM (2020) Trade union strategies against precarious work: common trends and sectoral divergence in the EU. European Journal of Industrial Relations26(2): 139–155.
27.
LillieN (2006) A Global Union for Global Workers: Collective Bargaining and Regulatory Politics in Maritime Shipping. New York: Routledge.
28.
LillieN (2010) Bringing the offshore ashore: transnational production, industrial relations and the reconfiguration of Sovereignty1. International Studies Quarterly54(3): 683–704.
29.
LillieN (2016) The right not to have rights: posted worker acquiescence and the European union labor rights framework. Theoretical Inquiries in Law17(1): 39–62.
30.
LipskyM (1980) Street Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of the Individual in Public Services. Russell Sage Foundation.
31.
Martínez LucioM (2016) Incertidumbre, indecisión y neoliberalismo emergente: El papel dual y complejo del Estado español en las relaciones laborales y de empleo. Sociologia del Trabajo87(2): 68–88.
32.
MeardiGMartínARieraML (2012) Constructing uncertainty: unions and migrant labour in construction in Spain and the UK. Journal of Industrial Relations54(1): 5–21.
33.
OstromE (1996) Crossing the great divide: coproduction, synergy, and development. World Development24: 1073–1087.
34.
Państwowa Inspekcja Pracy (2021) On the National Labour Inspectorate’s Activity in 2020 - Abbreviated Version for the International Labour Organization. Warsaw. Państwowa Inspekcja Pracy.
35.
PestoffV (2012) Co-Production and third sector social services in Europe: some concepts and evidence. Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations23(4): 1102–1118.
36.
PiñeiroLC (2016) Port state jurisdiction over labour conditions: a private international law perspective on extra-territoriality. The International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law31(3): 531–551.
37.
Sanz de MiguelP (2021) Corporatismo y coproducción en la lucha contra el empleo irregular: un estudio de caso. Revista Española De Sociología30(4): a77.
38.
WaltersD (2016) Labour Inspection and Health and Safety in the EU. The European Trade Union Institute’s (ETUI) health and safety at work magazine, pp. 12–17.14
39.
WeilD (2014) The Fissured Workplace. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
40.
WeilD (2018) Creating a strategic enforcement approach to address wage theft: one academic’s journey in organizational change. Journal of Industrial Relations60(3): 437–460.
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
