Enacting Uncertainties: A Focus on Labour Inspections in the Construction Industry

In the construction industry, site inspections are critical moments in the enforcement of labor laws. While conducting inspections, labor inspectors evaluate a wide range of situations and try to determine suitable outcomes. The construction sector requires particular attention from labor inspectors as it is prone to phenomenon such as severe work accidents and social dumping. The sector’s unpredictability drives them to permanently adapt to new situations and rely on their discretionary power, which has been described as “responsive regulation” in the literature (Van de Walle & Raaphorst, 2018). Our study focuses on inspectors’ decision-making processes while conducting well-being and anti-fraud inspections in the construction industry. Drawing on 34 interviews with Belgian labor inspectors and experts, we identify five logics that help to make decisions and justify them afterward. These logics lay back on five inherent dimensions of inspectors’ job: procedures, values, experience, relation to inspectees , and relation to peers. By referring to such logics during inspections, inspectors tend to privilege certain types of outcomes as they pursue their cases. Our contribution highlights a tension between regularization and legal proceedings in inspection work.