Posted work and deterritorialization in the European Union : a study of the German construction and meat industry
Year: 2015
Type: dissertation
Abstract: 'Posted workers' are a type of labour migrant sent by their employer to work temporarily in another EU member state. Their labour, employment and social security rights are embedded in both the sending and the host countries. This inhibits effective regulation of labour markets and labour relations within insular political economies. The regulatory capacity of states is deterritorialized. At the same time, the transnational flexibilisation of employment relations increases. This study explores the interrelationship between transformations of labour markets and nation states in the EU, two trends that are embodied in the posting relationship. The workplace-level focus reveals how posting actors redefine the posting regulatory framework, and conversely how the effects of EU integration impact industrial relations practices and labour market regulation. The aim is to decipher the current labour market structure and dynamics of change in transnational workspaces in a pan-European labour market. I focus on the German construction and meat industries, because of the prevalence of posted work in them. Bottom-up case study data supports four main findings. First, transnational subcontracting allows the emergence of different regulatory spaces at the national and workplace levels. Second, it opens exit options for capital but constrains voice options of unions, works councils and mobile workers. Third, transnational workspaces also create opportunities for transnational action; however, these opportunities take other forms than those usually expected within the German political economy. Fourth, borders in the EU are not abolished, but shift and are activated by mobility practices. In order to decipher the current structure of the pan-European labour market it is necessary to relate the shift in state borders to the shift in firm borders, since these transformations create a differentiated membership for mobile workers. Although posted work is a particularly complex policy field, labour migration as such is regarded as a decisive field where the profile of mid-21st-century Europe will be forged (Pries 2001).
Author: Ines Wagner
Language: English
Topic: European Law and Migration
Subfield: Law
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2204948090