Project description
When breaking labour laws becomes normal
Across Europe, workplace rights are routinely breached. From unpaid overtime to unsafe conditions, such breaches erode trust in both employers and the rule of law itself. Why do some businesses flout labour laws so frequently? How do technology, workplace culture, and competing understandings of the rule of law make this behaviour seem acceptable? The ERC-funded LawAtWork project aims to answer these questions by examining employment law enforcement as a test of democracy’s ability to hold power to account. Combining sociology, anthropology, and political economy, it studies how inspectors, employers, unions, and workers themselves shape compliance. The findings could redefine how societies enforce fairness at work and restore faith in labour justice and democratic government.
Objective
Across Europe and beyond, employment rights are frequently breached in a manner that manifestly undermines the rule of law. Yet breach of employment law remains balefully understudied. Little is understood of enforcement and compliance as social processes: how breach can become normalised or cast as unacceptable; how deterrence measures operate within specific contexts; how enforcement and compliance are affected by the use of new technologies to manage and monitor workers; and how routine breach might cause people to become disillusioned with employment law, and even with law in general, doubting the capacity of legal rules and institutions to hold the powerful to account.
Framing enforcement and compliance as a question of the rule of law, and of the capacity of our democracies to regulate the economy in furtherance of collectively devised notions of the common good, LawAtWork develops a novel sociology – or economic sociology – of the rule of law, with application far beyond the fields of labour law and work relations. It develops an innovative approach to the study of employment law enforcement and compliance which puts key actors at the centre of the enquiry: not only firms, labour inspectorates and trade unions but individuals within them, including managers, HR professionals and, critically, workers themselves. Using a combination of methods drawn from economic anthropology, the sociology of law and comparative political economy, it analyses both actors’ decision-making, motivations and understandings and the structural constraints and resources that shape their perceptions and actions. In doing so, it pays particular attention to broad changes in political economy over time, to institutional and organisational change, and to technological developments. It thereby makes transformational advances in our understanding of breach of employment law and the reasons for it, and in much broader understandings of how law works in different socio-economic settings.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2024-ADG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
G12 8QQ Glasgow
United Kingdom
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.