Ispettori del lavoro e sfruttamento lavorativo: una questione di vulnerabilità?

The definition of labour exploitation encompasses those situations of\r\nimbalance in the exchange of benefits between work and wages, which\r\nharm the rights of the weaker party, who in an employment relationship\r\nis to be considered the worker. This phenomenon can manifest itself\r\nin different forms, located on a continuum of which one extreme is\r\ncharacterised by real forms of abuse and slavery, while the other by\r\nrelatively less serious forms of exploitation, which do not constitute a\r\ncriminal offence. This paper focuses on the cases at the beginning of\r\nthis continuum, in the grey area between criminal offences and labour\r\nlaw violations. It analyses how labour inspectors in three EU countries\r\nwith different national frameworks on labour exploitation (notably Italy\r\nand the Netherlands) deal with cases that cannot be easily placed in\r\none of two categories (severe or non-severe). The analysis of these\r\nborderline cases, which involve a high degree of interpretative uncer-\r\ntainty for inspectors, provides a better understanding of how they use\r\ntheir discretion in practice. Semi-structured interviews were conduct-\r\ned with 15 labour inspectors in Italy and 15 labour inspectors in the\r\nNetherlands using the vignette method, a useful tool for international\r\ncomparisons in different contexts. The results show that the character-\r\nistics of exploited and exploiters play a role. In particular, where these\r\nadhere to the respondents’ ideal of a victim, then the case is consid-\r\nered “serious”. Again, these characteristics seem to contribute to the\r\ndecision whether to prosecute the case criminally or through labour\r\nlaw proceedings.