ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the state of United Kingdom employment/labour law in order to understand labour and the precarity experienced at work particularly by persons considered to be ‘irregular’ ‘migrants’ as ecotechnical. Labour practices of subcontracting and outsourcing work can deprive workers of an identifiable employer-employee relationship through zero-hour or self-employment contracts. Labour, juridically and practically understood through labour market participation and capital accumulation, has become a technique. The rise of flexible labour considered as the feminisation of labour coincided with changes to industrial labour, through privatisation, and a shift towards a globalised ‘free’ market economy. Existing legal strategies are often insufficient to address gaps in labour market participation for women, and men, in marginalised, precarious work. Labour and employment law can function exclusively within a limited framework where, in spite of inclusive language, legislation differentiates labour relationships according to the contract of employment and ‘employee’ status.
