Which law is laggard?: regulation and the gaps between labour and social security law

Abstract

This paper analyses the interaction between labour law and social security law for two categories of work-life situation: workers with family responsibilities (WFR) and jobseekers. The categories of WFR and jobseeker each represent an emblematic spot on the spectrum of interaction between labour law and social security law, one primarily from labour law and the other from social security law, but with intersecting concepts either way. The central argument made in this chapter is that, although WFR are more transparently subject to a combination of laws in the labour and social security fields, it is jobseekers who are governed by a more integrated set of regulations. The complicating factor, however, is that this greater regulatory streamlining for jobseekers should not be taken to suggest that they are treated in a more humanistic way; for as we demonstrate, market principles are equally paramount in the regulation of both the WFR and jobseeker life-situations. Paradoxically, despite the apparent newness of regulation theory, it is the established tradition of integration between law and policy institutions in the social security system which determines the greater sophistication of jobseeker regulation. Though more clearly subjected to pressure and influence from non-traditional regulatory areas, labour law still suffers from a relative isolationism, which curtails legal and other rules from reaching out to integrate with broader factors bearing upon the social and life status of WFR.