CLW Book Presentation: Working without a job: State mandated unfree labour
23 November 2022, 2.00 PM - 23 November 2022, 3.00 PM
Room1.12, 8-10 Berkeley Square
On Wednesday 23 November, the Centre for Law at Work welcomes you to a book presentation 'The Working without a job: State mandated unfree labour' presented by its authors Dr Katie Bales (the Centre Co-director) and Professor Amir Paz Fuchs (Professor of Law and Social Justice, University of Sussex).
Abstract
Despite performing thousands of hours of work each year, there is a growing sector of workers within the UK who remain excluded from traditional labour rights and protections. Importantly, this work is not considered ‘illegal’, but rather is initiated and organised by the government, and includes prison work, workfare, internships, and work within immigration detention centres. Partly punitive, this work creates surplus value for not only the state, but also for private corporations which benefit from unregulated and cheap forms of labour. This paper analyses the legal position of these workers, arguing that their exclusion from formal employment status forms part of a long historical narrative in which the work of particular minorities is socially engineered to sit outside the boundaries of ‘real work’, despite being central to the functioning of capital. Histories of social reproduction and colonial labour indicate that work exclusions are a means of controlling and disciplining particular populations, as well as stratifying their social status. Accordingly, though many of our case study participants satisfy the legal requirements for employment status, underlying structural disadvantages and engineered social status preclude the provision of labour rights – often instilled via statutory exclusion.
Contact information
For further information, please contact the Centre Executive Assistant Mei Mei Cheung via law-research-exec@bristol.ac.uk.