Most of us want our workplace to be a fair one, but fighting to achieve such an outcome is by no means easy, as recent research from Cornell University demonstrates. The study shows that attempts to enforce workplace law from the bottom up not only fail to protect the most vulnerable people in our workforce, but also impose a considerable burden on those trying to enforce justice.

The authors highlight how informal communities can often be the last refuge for people suffering from discrimination, harassment or unsafe working conditions, especially in workplaces where formal enforcement mechanisms are absent.

“We always want to celebrate workers coming forward to rally for their rights,” they explain. “It’s inspirational to hear those stories, but in reality, it’s unsustainable as a primary mechanism of ensuring employer compliance. And actually, what our research found was that it can be very traumatic for workers themselves to have to constantly come forward and demand redress.”

Worker rights

The study examines the role of worker centers and legal aid societies that provide assistance to worker claims, and the researchers argue that these must be supported with more financial resources and manpower. Indeed, they also believe that the government should do more to emphasize strategic enforcement, whether via frequent audits or a more effective field enforcement program.

The researchers analyzed qualitative data to help them understand the claims-making process. This showed that it can not only be frustrating for all involved but impose a considerable toll, with workplace abuse imposing a particularly high psychosocial cost.

“In the last 100 years, we’ve added all these laws to protect workers, but the enforcement has really rested on workers coming forward,” the researchers explain. “That claims-driven mechanism operates only as well as workers are able to surpass the myriad barriers to coming forward and seeing a claim through to the end.

“People have to deal with both the exhausting bureaucracy of the claims process, and the constant fear of employer retaliation and blacklisting.”

The interviews conducted for the research revealed that attempting to fight workplace exploiting imposed a considerable amount of emotional and financial stress on people. This not only consisted of lost wages but also an increase in depression.

“This stress, fear, and unease persisted even after workers connected with an advocate associated with a worker center and were compounded by the adversarial and often frustrating claims-making process that followed,” the researchers explain.

The paper suggests that while worker mobilization programs are usually framed in a positive way, they might come with costs associated with them that are not fully appreciated.

“Worker centers do critical work, and we need to continue to support them,” the authors conclude. “But we can’t keep relying on workers and civil society to come forward to compel government regulation. Passing stronger laws is important, so is funding adequate enforcement mechanisms. Legislators have to empower strategic enforcement efforts and state attorney generals to really go after the offenders. Unless there’s a real legitimate threat, we’re not necessarily going to move the needle on employer compliance and workers will continue to suffer.”