Documenting or preventing exploitation and harm?

There has been a huge and recent interest among academics in issues such as human trafficking, modern slavery, child labour and forced labour. This has occurred ‘over a timeframe that has seen the continued ascent of neoliberal globalisation and worsening conditions and relative rewards for the majority of workers worldwide’ (Coe, 2013, 279). In other words, there is a danger that this book, and others like it, simply end up documenting growing problems rather than challenging and ultimately preventing them. Aware of this danger, the penultimate chapter outlines the different types of solutions to the problems of labour exploitation and work-based harm.

The more common and favoured type of solution revolves around the establishment of legal baselines through national and international conventions, codes and laws. In many countries these are then used as the basis for labour inspection and enforcement regimes. Although a central component in the fight against exploitation and harm, this baseline approach only takes us so far. Most obviously, it is clear that there is a ‘justice gap’ between paper-based de jure protection and the levels of exploitation and harm actually experienced by workers on the ground.

To address this justice gap, and consistent with the social harm agenda, we must also look beyond criminology for solutions. Most obviously, it is clear that the form of capitalism in operation at a given time and in a given space can dramatically shape workers’ lived experiences. For instance, the modification of capitalism away from a neoliberal and toward a social democratic regime is generally associated with a reduction in work-based exploitation and harm (Pemberton, 2015). At present, however, the direction of travel appears to be the other way: towards neoliberal capitalist regimes that are associated with greater levels of exploitation and harm.

Other than looking at changing the nature of capitalism, one can also look to the power (im)balance between labour and capital as a cause of, and solution to, labour exploitation and work-based harm. Specifically, the role of trade unions, the level of income inequality between workers, and the ability of workers to peacefully protest, are all markers of labour–capital relations.