Regulating work/care relationships in a time of austerity : a legal perspective

Recent austerity measures have led to labour market deregulation alongside cuts to welfare provision. Such reforms have resulted in reduced protection for the large numbers of women workers who combine low paid, precarious work with high levels of care-giving. Furthermore, cuts to public services risk upsetting the finely-tuned arrangements on which those who provide care alongside paid work depend. This chapter considers the impact of austerity on the legal and policy framework surrounding the reconciliation of paid employment and unpaid care. The chapter aims to explore the relationship between gender and care in order to identify the limits of the current framework for addressing the needs of those who provide unpaid informal care alongside paid work.