Conceptualizing Worker-to-Worker Relations: A Comparative Perspective

Contemporary labour law scholarship places the relationship between employers and employees at the heart of its analysis, mostly disregarding relations between workers, especially if they belong to different organizations. This article argues that such an approach is one-dimensional and misses a central aspect of the experience of being a worker. It argues that the increasing complexity of the modern workplace requires a coherent scholarly account of this additional dimension of workplace dynamics.Attempting to address this blind spot, the article suggests conceptualizing worker-to-worker relations as a type of community: the ‘Worker-Community’. This new paradigm advances our understanding of the special characteristics, including duties and obligations, of relations between workers. The article further examines the range of potential legal implications of this model, from bullying and sexual harassment to the unregulated practice of underbidding in the gig or platform economy.