From resentment to deconstruction: Whistleblowing as a politico-legal tool of labour law enforcement

Abstract

By focusing on three groups of whistleblowers in Slovakia speaking out against the use of bogus self-employment in their companies, this study contributes to the debate on the political dimension of whistleblowing. Specifically, it conceptualises whistleblowing as a practice that opens up broader societal, ethical and political questions by examining its relationship to institutions, with particular interest in those institutions that create the law. In doing so, the study analyses how labour law and enforcement institutions are deconstructed through the long process of whistleblowing, which involves the interactions of multiple institutions and social actors in a regulatory space that tend to sustain (bogus) self-employment.