Introduction

In late 2019, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) announced that a construction worker who had been waiting three years for over €8,000 in unpaid wages was among the cases of worker exploitation referred to the new European Labour Authority (ELA) for investigation (European Trade Union Confederation, 2019). Cases such as this represent how construction workers experience labour exploitation across European countries and industries. Given that the European construction industry is expected to continue growing in the foreseeable future (Building Information Modeling, 2018), it represents an increasingly important area of investigation for issues associated with labour exploitation and corporate criminology. Labour exploitation can be broadly understood as a spectrum, ranging from criminalized practices such as forced labour, to ‘routine’ breaches of labour or employment legislation (Murphy et al, 2019). The purpose of this chapter is to consider what is ‘European’ about white-collar and corporate crime throughout the European construction industry, with an emphasis on exploitative labour practices and the ‘posting’ of workers. ‘Posting’ refers to the temporary migration of workers sent by their employers to work on projects abroad, which is facilitated under EU free movement of services rules (Lillie, 2012). It is hoped that this chapter will help to frame labour exploitation in the European construction industry through a corporate criminology lens, especially concerning why businesses are able to exploit posted workers in the context of ‘free movement’, as well as how governance gaps serve to maintain weak standards of accountability in this area.

White-collar and corporate crimes in European construction

Discussion of criminal activity in European construction industries is not new. For example, Savona (2010) analyzes the infiltration of the Italian construction industry by organized crime groups; in Dutch construction, van Duyne and Houtzager (2005) frame concerns over the ‘black labour market’, whereas van de Bunt (2010) focuses on cartels and construction fraud scandals; and Kankaanranta and Muttilainen (2010) examine economic crimes and the ‘grey economy’ in Finnish construction. More recently, concerns revolving around human trafficking and other forms of ‘modern slavery’ have generated significant European interest regarding the protection of (migrant) workers, as well as the role of states and corporations in facilitating exploitation (Caro et al, 2015; Chartered Institute of Building, 2018; Focus on Labour Exploitation, 2018a; Fundamental Rights Agency, 2019; Murphy et al, 2019).