Borders in a European Labor Market

Abstract

Chapter 5 adopts a more explicitly spatial perspective and looks at how borders are constructed in both regulatory and workplace terms. It analyzes the contours of the new structure for employment relations that emerges within the pan-European labor market and studies the reshaping of the nation state from the micro-level points of view of societal actors such as mobile workers, public administration officials, firms, and trade unions. Findings demonstrate that two types of borders are significant in relation to posting in a pan-European labor market: (1) borders for labor market regulation that inhibit the enforcement of labor rights and (2) the border of the firm—that is, the border between the main and subcontracting firms that isolates workers from the host-country industrial relations systems. These borders impact the institutional separation between posted workers and host-country trade unions.