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Constructing Mobilities: The Reproduction of Posted Workers’ Disposability in the Construction Sector

Author

Listed:
  • Francesco Bagnardi

    (University of Milan, Italy)

  • Devi Sacchetto

    (University of Padua, Italy)

  • Francesca Alice Vianello

    (University of Padua, Italy)

Abstract

Posted work is often framed as a business model based on social dumping. Widespread regulatory evasion is imputed to regulation’s opacity, firms’ predatory practices and trade unions’ inability to organise posted workers. Isolation and precariousness channel posted workers’ agency into individualised reworking or exit strategies. These perspectives, however insightful, focus either on formal regulations, enforcement actors or host countries’ institutional settings. Drawing on biographical interviews with Italian construction workers posted abroad, and semi-structured interviews with non-posted workers and stakeholders of the sector in Italy, the article adopts an actor-centred perspective and mobilises the concept of labour regime to show how its disciplining elements operating in the construction sector in Italy stick with workers during their postings and enhance their disposability. Although this sticky labour regime constrains workers’ agency abroad, it remains continuously contested and offers ways for workers to subvert it and improve their employment conditions.

Suggested Citation

  • Francesco Bagnardi & Devi Sacchetto & Francesca Alice Vianello, 2024. "Constructing Mobilities: The Reproduction of Posted Workers’ Disposability in the Construction Sector," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 38(6), pages 1703-1724, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:38:y:2024:i:6:p:1703-1724
    DOI: 10.1177/09500170231225622
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Charlotte Hooper Overgaard & Laust Høgedahl, 2026. "Employer strategies for undermining migrants’ power resources: Evidence from the Danish construction sector," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 47(1), pages 78-96, February.
    2. Yu Zheng & Chris Smith, 2025. "Mobility power and society: Managing migrant workers among Chinese multinational companies in Europe," European Journal of Industrial Relations, , vol. 31(2), pages 209-231, June.
    3. Simon Schaupp & Jan Meier, 2026. "Climate Change Vulnerability and the Politics of Production on Swiss Construction Sites," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 40(2), pages 337-347, April.

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