Regulating exposure: routine deaths, work and the Covid crisis

Abstract

This paper examines the juxtaposition of two phenomena -deaths at work and coronavirus deaths -in the context of regulatory strategies which are ostensibly to prevent such deaths. More specifically, my particular focus is on the ways in which work, working and workplaces were managed -and indeed somewhat obscured -during the pandemic, so that the normalisation of work-related deaths by and large continued, even perhaps exacerbated, certainly killing tens of thousands of workers. To this end, in the following sections, I begin, first, by examining in historical context how workplace death because normalised through law and regulation, then turn to focus upon the various ways in deaths were further normalised and obscured during the pandemic in the UK. A key conceptual and empirical reference point here is regulation -a phenomenon and process which, as illustrated across different aspects of the pandemic, is revealed as permitting and routinising deaths related to work and working.

Deaths and COVID‐19: Talk, silence and alternative realities

“…For these groups, at least while at work, the pandemic was not marked by restrictions-that is, regulation ostensibly designed to protect workers' health and safety was not strengthened. Quite the opposite in fact: enforcement of such law, in significant decline in the two decades prior to the pandemic, virtually ground to a halt during the course of it (Tombs, 2022). This raises the question of how we understand the nature and role of regulation.…”

“…But while the middle classes found ways to while away their days, many workers never stayed at home but carried on working as usual—albeit, as we have seen, with increased levels of exposure to a potentially deadly virus. Where work was deemed as “essential,” this had to continue—but subject to the various Covid‐guidelines (which for the most part were neither enforced nor enforceable; Tombs, 2022). “Essential” work included many of the most vulnerable, marginalized and lowest paid workers cited above as most likely to die, as well as others including health, social care, emergency services, nursery and some school teachers.…”