Restricted rights: obstacles in enforcing the labour rights of mobile EU workers in the German and Dutch construction sector

Ines Wagner and Lisa Berntsen
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Ines Wagner: University of Duisburg-Essen
Lisa Berntsen: Tilburg University

Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, 2016, vol. 22, issue 2, 193-206

Abstract: There is considerable evidence that employers are violating the labour rights of mobile EU workers. However there is disagreement as to whether the lack of enforcement of these rights is caused by poor EU-level or weak national-level potential to oversee and sanction infringing companies and to enforce the rules. This poses the following three questions. Which enforcement gaps exist in relation to EU labour mobility? Which circumstances lead to these particular enforcement gaps? And what is being done to close those gaps? To answer these questions we examine the behaviour of institutions key to these processes, interviewing the respective labour enforcement agencies and trade unions in the German and Dutch construction sector as well as mobile EU workers themselves. We discuss three distinct difficulties encountered in enforcing labour standards: 1) disparities between enforcement institutions in different EU Member States; 2) enforcement challenges faced within the national context; and 3) representation gaps between host country collective representation channels and mobile EU workers.

Keywords: Labour mobility; enforcement of labour rights; institutions and actors; trade union representation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:treure:v:22:y:2016:i:2:p:193-206

DOI: 10.1177/1024258916636025

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