Employment law and people: reflections based on the idea of Trabexit

Abstract

The Spanish labour market is undergoing phenomena that reveal important changes in people’s behaviour in the economy and in the labour market. In order to analyse them, a multidisciplinary research project has been set up, whose leaders have christened this new labour reality as TRABEXIT. These practices involve the search for better jobs, professional opportunities, ways of working or places to work, prioritising personal preferences over other considerations such as security, stability, remuneration or professional career. It is an emerging phenomenon, but one on which there is a broad consensus, and in which labour law has a major role to play. In this paper we carry out a transversal analysis of the Employment Law from this perspective, identifying the role that job seekers are recognised as having in making decisions about their occupation. The conclusion is negative, since we are still far from a regulation that is coherent with this new attitude of job seekers. It is necessary to design a different model of relationship between users and providers of employment services, both public and private, in which the former are recognised as having the capacity to decide on the options presented to them, both in terms of occupation and training.