Structural Injustice and Workers' Rights
Published on 10. March 2023
Book
Hardback
208 pages
978-0-19-285715-6 (ISBN)
Description
When discussing exploitation in workplaces, governments typically deploy a rhetoric of personal responsibility: they place attention on employers who take advantage of workers, or on workers who choose non-standard, precarious work arrangements. On this account, the responsibility of the state is to address the harm inflicted by private actors.
This book questions that approach and develops the concept of 'state-mediated structural injustice at work': a phenomenon which manifests when legislation that has an appearance of legitimacy, in fact has very damaging effects for large numbers of people and results in structures of exploitation at work. Using a series of examples such as migrant workers, captive workers, people under welfare conditionality schemes, and other precarious workers, Mantouvalou shows how the law creates these structures of injustice, entrenching long-term, standard, and routine exploitation. She also assesses these examples against human rights principles, including civil, political, economic, and social rights. The ultimate aim of the work is to show that these structures routinely lead to workers' exploitation which may in turn give rise to state responsibility for human rights violations and to argue that there is a pressing need for reform.
This book questions that approach and develops the concept of 'state-mediated structural injustice at work': a phenomenon which manifests when legislation that has an appearance of legitimacy, in fact has very damaging effects for large numbers of people and results in structures of exploitation at work. Using a series of examples such as migrant workers, captive workers, people under welfare conditionality schemes, and other precarious workers, Mantouvalou shows how the law creates these structures of injustice, entrenching long-term, standard, and routine exploitation. She also assesses these examples against human rights principles, including civil, political, economic, and social rights. The ultimate aim of the work is to show that these structures routinely lead to workers' exploitation which may in turn give rise to state responsibility for human rights violations and to argue that there is a pressing need for reform.
Reviews / Votes
The book clearly appeals to scholars of labour law, social security law, migration law and human rights law to reflect on the nature and impact of such intersections. * Vandita Khanna, The Cambridge Law Journal * The concept of structural injustice, as developed for the labour law context by Virginia Mantouvalou, is a welcome and important addition to the literature. It helps us understand how workers' rights are affected by laws outside of labour law. At the same time, the book provides a set of legal tools to fight such injustice, by pointing out the infringement of human rights created by such laws. Practicing lawyers and judges would therefore find this book useful just as much as academics. * Guy Davidov, Industrial Law Journal * Virginia Mantouvalou offers an acute observation, a deep analysis, and a proposition, all of which are engaging and thought-provoking. The observation recognizes the existence of structural injustice as a general concept, distinct from injustice that is perpetrated by individuals or state actors. * Amir Paz-Fuchs, Modern Law Review * One of the book's important contributions is that it brings together groups who are excluded from labour market in different ways and whose exclusions are rarely looked at alongside each other: prison workers, migrant workers, welfare-to-work workers, and precaritised workers. * Professor Bridget Anderson, Book Symposium in the UK Labour Law Blog * Virginia Mantouvalou's new book, Structural Injustice and Workers' Rights, offers [firm] footing. We need a tool by which we can break apart and analyse the unwieldy notion of systemic and relative injustice, and Mantouvalou provides a diagnostic framework for that purpose. [...] There is a heartening optimism running through Structural Injustice and Workers' Rights, despite its thoughtful exploration of deep suffering and legal failures. * Emily Kenway, Book Symposium in the UK Labour Law Blog * The book is aimed at human rights, social security and labour law scholars, as well as adjudicators and policymakers, reflecting on the state's ability to revert current patterns of injustice. It focuses on the existential question of whether the law of work is producing unintended effects leading to structural, endemic, unjust consequences that are severely affecting the lives of working people.Two important notions arising from the book are the understanding of the state, and the analysis of the human rights framework. * Irena Ewa Lipowicz, European Journal of Social Security * For scholars nd practitioners, this book thus serves as a valuable resource that pushes the boundaries of conventional thinking about labour rights. For the general reader, it provides a sobering, yet inspiring exploration of how deeply entrenched injustices can be questioned, challenged, andultimately dismantled. For readers of the BHRJ, it provides a solid theoretical framework to advance the debate on structural injustice and expand the scope of corporate accountability. * Christian Linder, Business and Human Rights Journal *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 147 mm
Width: 170 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
454 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-285715-6 (9780192857156)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Virginia Mantouvalou
Structural Injustice and Workers' Rights
E-Book
02/2023
1st Edition
OUP eBook
€65.49
Available for download
Virginia Mantouvalou
Structural Injustice and Workers' Rights
E-Book
02/2023
1st Edition
OUP eBook
€65.49
Available for download
Person
Virginia Mantouvalou is Professor of Human Rights and Labour Law at University College London. She has received several awards for her research, including a British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship and a UCL Provost Award for Public Engagement for her research collaboration with the NGO Kalayaan (working on the rights of domestic workers). She is Articles Co-Editor of the Modern Law Review, a member of the editorial board of the Stanford Studies in Human Rights, Co-Editor of the UK Labour Law Blog, and Joint Editor of Current Legal Problems. She has held visiting positions at Georgetown University Law Centre in Washington DC and the Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
Content
PART I: WHAT IS STRUCTURAL INJUSTICE?
1: Introduction: Structural Injustice and Workers' Rights
2: Structures of Injustice at Work
PART II: ILLUSTRATIONS OF STATE-MEDIATED STRUCTURAL INJUSTICE
3: Migrant Workers
4: Captive Workers
5: Welfare-to-Work
6: Precarious Workers
PART III: HUMAN RIGHTS
7: Human Rights I
8: Human Rights II
9: Epilogue
1: Introduction: Structural Injustice and Workers' Rights
2: Structures of Injustice at Work
PART II: ILLUSTRATIONS OF STATE-MEDIATED STRUCTURAL INJUSTICE
3: Migrant Workers
4: Captive Workers
5: Welfare-to-Work
6: Precarious Workers
PART III: HUMAN RIGHTS
7: Human Rights I
8: Human Rights II
9: Epilogue