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Paid care work, gendered labor law and the vulnerability of community

Hayes, L.J.B. (2017) Paid care work, gendered labor law and the vulnerability of community. In: Albertson Fineman, Martha and Fineman, Jonathan W., eds. Vulnerability and the Legal Organization of Work. Routledge, pp. 91-105. E-ISBN 978-1-315-51857-2. (doi:10.4324/9781315518572-8) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:75210)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided. (Contact us about this Publication)
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https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315518572-8

Abstract

This chapter suggests that the vulnerability of "community" is impacted by the gendering of labor law. It deals with homecare workers in England, women who are employed to provide essential support to older and disabled people living in their own homes. Instead of conceiving of paid care work as the product of an individuated interaction, we can recognize the labor of state-funded paid care workers as a potentially progressive expression of community. Yet Sophie's narrative also opens our eyes to ways in which the physical and existential qualities of state-funded care have been undermined by contractual processes of privatization and service transfer. The state has actively crafted its privatization agenda in pursuit of large reductions in labor costs and appears ambivalent about the labor standards entitlements of homecare workers. Homecare workers give personal care to older and disabled people, visiting them in their own homes to provide assistance with washing, dressing, continence/incontinence and basic nursing care.

Item Type: Book section
DOI/Identification number: 10.4324/9781315518572-8
Divisions: Divisions > Division for the Study of Law, Society and Social Justice > Kent Law School
Depositing User: Lydia Hayes
Date Deposited: 05 Jul 2019 10:03 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Feb 2021 14:05 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/75210 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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