Mobile Care Workers in the European Union: Different Labour Regimes and their Problems in Practice

The European Union (EU) has established an internal labor market through institutionalizing the free movement of labor and services. EU citizens can take up employment in another EU country via posted work, regular employment and self-employment. Though these workers often perform similar jobs, their rights depend on these different legal regimes. There is already considerable evidence that labor rights of mobile EU workers are violated across different sectors. However, little is known whether these mechanisms of mobile worker exploitation are caused by liberal opportunity structures at the EU-level or by enforcement gaps at the national level. In my contribution, I analyze different factors (EU law and legal uncertainty, lacking horizontal administrative cooperation, lacking mobile worker representation) at different levels explaining sources of mobile worker exploitation. This is done by comparing three labor regimes (posted work, employment, and self-employment) in the care sector along two country pairs (Germany-Poland, Austria-Romania).