The aim of the RightsLab Action was to advance the protection of agency workers’ transnational labour and social rights in the light of the continuous supply of just-in-time workforce via temporary work agencies in both in core EU member states, and in Central and Eastern Europe. RightsLab was to explore the labour and employment conditions of Ukrainian transnational workers employed through work agencies and asked: how can we develop mechanisms of effective transnational labour rights for agency workers? To answer these questions, RightsLab set out to a) critically investigate the mechanisms and practices of transnational recruitment and employment chains involving temporary work agencies; b) to understand the pros and cons of such employment mechanisms for workers and the role each actor plays in such chains including the larger socio-economic picture; c) to evaluate the main risks/labour rights violations in such types of employment; c) to explore the possibilities for creating better mechanisms for cross-border labour rights protections and proposing empirically grounded interventions. To reach these scientific and social objectives Action was designed to help me learn new skills, develop lasting networks and new methodologies and ways of communication around these questions by advancing my scholarly career and expertise in documentary filmmaking.
The course and content of RightsLab Action in 2022-23 has been severely affected by the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. The structure, focus and circumstances of my research had to be adjusted to the new situation, and my personal capacity, as a scholar of Ukrainian origin, to carry out further activities meaningfully. February 2022 has greatly changed the numbers, ways of mobility, and demographic characteristics of those Ukrainians who moved, as well as the EU and national responses to integration, management of mobility and inclusion of these people. Temporary protection status, given to Ukrainian citizens fleeing the war as a group-belonging status, allowed them to join labour markets and plan longer term settlement. It has also in many ways altered the situation of those Ukrainian labour migrants, who have been present in the EU before 2022, especially (but not exclusively) the situation of male seasonal and temporary workers. In the light of these changes, RightsLab had to adjust its focus and objectives, in order to build on the strength of its original plan and turn it to use in the changing situation towards 2 main related research questions: a) the role of the “old” labour migration network in the reception effort of the displaced Ukrainian citizens; 2) situation on the labour market, in relation to new arrivals but also larger impact of full-scale war in Ukraine on mobility (e.g. the stop to mobility of men, return of men, arrival of women with dependents). Significantly, the RightsLab focus, methods, engagement with public, and networks had to be re-thought in order to continue the principle of active public engagement with the researched issues.
