Introduction

Marcel lives in a three-bed house on the outskirts of Greater London, with ten other Romanian men. Every day from dawn until dusk, seven of the men labour in a car wash, hosing and scrubbing in 11-hour shifts, in the shadow of the city's skyscrapers. It is backbreaking work; the type of work where you have to steal your lunch break between the taillights of the car departing and the headlights of the one approaching, ready to spring to your feet at any moment. But it is work no less – something Marcel has been doing for four years straight – and others have dipped in and out of between return trips to Romania and attempts to ‘make it’ elsewhere. Despite its drawbacks, car washing offers a sense of dignity. It provides the normalcy that comes with knowing that the roof above his head can be provided for, and that tomorrow may be a little lighter than today. It is, in many ways, ordinary work.

In March 2020 when the coronavirus pandemic sent London, like so much of the global North, grinding to a halt, this work was abruptly interrupted. Marcel and his colleagues were suddenly let go without notice or any compensation, just the categorical rejection of a business that acted as if it owed them nothing. With minimal savings, and unable to find any other work in a city under lockdown, they found themselves struggling to pay for food, let alone rent. It was at this point that they contacted the Work Rights Centre – a small employment rights charity I have had the privilege to be a part of since 2016 – where a team of caseworkers offer free advice in matters of employment justice.

For Marcel and his colleagues who had been doing casual jobs for years, contacting the charity represented a cry for help. It was the realization that, unlike in previous moments of crisis, when they had relied on their ability to adapt and could always find something else, this time work opportunities were lacking. For advisers at the charity on the other hand, theirs was just the first of many cases which revealed how unevenly the pandemic was experienced, and how much effort would go into managing the extraordinariness of a world without work.