Extending social protection to poorer informal workers

Transcription

1 Extending social protection to poorer informal workers Francie Lund WIEGO: Social Protection Programme Lusaka Social Protection Colloquium: Social Protection for Informal Workers SASPEN, PSP Zambia, FES Lusaka, 12 th May 2016 SASPEN, PSP, FES 1

2 The approach To address poverty, there is a need to address employment. The majority of working women and men in the global south work informally. Increasing numbers in the north do as well. Informal work is without legal protection or social security/ social protection. It is unlikely that many informal workers will rapidly be formalised. What other interventions can protect the security of poorer workers, and especially poorer women workers? What pathways to extension and inclusion have been tried? Why are some of the pathways viable/ sustainable? Who or what are the drivers?

3 The policy climate Growing acknowledgement of the reality of informal employment Much-improved labour force statistics (ILO with WIEGO) The influence of ILO Decent work for all Growth of global networks of informal workers e.g. street vendors, industrial outworkers, waste-pickers, domestic workers Global Social (Protection) Floor(s) - significant policy shift to universal provision across the life cycle, with main pillars being cash transfers plus health services will it include informal workers? 2014 and 2015 ILC formalise informal work how realistic? 3

4 Social protection and social policies on their own cannot redress the effects of macroeconomic and trade policies that reinforce insecurity and inequality and exclusion. The majority of informal workers are not there by choice they are there because there is no alternative. 4

5 Recognition Recognition in law as workers Recognition as workers in different occupations e.g. garment workers working from home, vegetable vendors, construction workers, fishermen and fisherwomen, agricultural workers Recognition of their economic contribution to national GDP, and to the local economy Recognition at city level as workers 5

6 International Classification of Status in Employment internationally accepted through ILO Self-Employed in Informal Enterprises employers (who employ others) own account operators (who do not employ others) unpaid contributing family workers members of informal producer cooperatives Wage Workers in Informal Jobs (i.e. jobs without employment-linked social protection) informal employees of informal enterprises informal employees of formal firms domestic workers hired by households 6

7 Key issues arising from status in employment Labour law is based on the employer-employee relationship The majority of poorer informal workers are self-employed Some of the self-employed employ others as informal wage workers Some self-employed are in disguised or ambiguous employment status e.g. homebased piece rate workers, dependent on one or two suppliers 7

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9 Indicators of formality and informality Is his work recognised/ counted in the labour force survey? Is his occupation regulated formally or informally? In South Africa, there is a national council for registration and regulation of traditional healers. Is his business registered? Does he keep accounts? How many people does he employ? What is their status in employment? Is his place of work recognised by the local authority? Is the property registered? If so, does he pay rates? If not, who does he pay rental to, and does the owner pay rates?

10 Gender and informal employment 10

11 Stylised gender patterns in formal and informal employment In most developing countries, there are more women than men in informal work. Men earn more in both formal and informal work. Men are more likely than women to employ others. Women experience a more defined and lower glass ceiling (barriers to upward mobility). When entering the urban informal sector, men have more work experience than do women. Where women have been employed, it is likely to have been in domestic work, where there is limited scope for exercising autonomy and voice (see Castel-Branco study on domestic workers in Mocambique)

12 Segmentation in the informal economy Source: Martha Chen et al Progress of the World s Women: Women work and poverty. New York: UNIFEM Poverty Risk Average Earnings Segmentation by Sex Low High Employers Predominantly Men Informal Wage Workers: Regular Own Account Operators Men and Women Inf ormal Wage Workers: Casual Industrial Outworkers/Homeworkers Predominantly Women High Low Unpaid Family Workers

13 Different physical places of work carry different risks Home-based workers/ industrial outworkers Own private dwelling Domestic workers Someone else s private dwelling Street and market vendors Public space controlled by local authority Privately owned markets Waste pickers/ recyclers Public or privately owned waste dumps Residential areas Factories 13

14 BUT Intersection of class, ethnicity, gender (patriarchy) Very poor women may find it harder to organise around work issues than very poor men Same occupation, different risks along gender lines 14

15 Jonathan Torgovnik/Getty Images Reportage Risk and vulnerability: Kayayei in Accra Young women from the north of Ghana; poor education; carry loads for women market workers, and for their customers 15

16 Juan Arredondo/Getty Images Reportage Health risk: headload porters in Lima, Peru The men carry huge weights on neck and shoulders, taking produce from farm trucks into stalls at the market. FETTRAMAP union negotiating to have reduced loads but this means less income 16

17 Different occupational sectors hold different potential for `safer work and better incomes what are the boundaries of social protection? Industrial outworkers/ home-based workers Improve the conditions under which they are incorporated into value chains Ethical Trading Initiative and codes of conduct Street and market vendors Health and safety improvements through local government Urban design and equipment design Infrastructure provision that enables informal workers to work more safely and productively Waste pickers Moving up the value chain Co-ops negotiating with local government and MNCs Extended Product Responsibility 17

18 Jonathan Torgovnik/Getty Images Reportage Women sorting materials at a waste dump near Soweto Hazardous environment, hazardous materials 18

19 In some countries, domestic workers have been relatively easily included in basic conditions of employment legislation such as having a contract, sick leave, paid leave (e.g. Brazil) unemployment insurance (e.g. South Africa) Partly this is because the employer can be identified. For homebased workers/ industrial outworkers, the employment relationship may be disguised or ambiguous. The active organisation of informal workers is usually needed to voice the issues, start the court cases, gain the rights, and then to force implementation and compliance. What are different pathways to inclusion? 19

20 Pathways to Inclusion Legal routes Legal reforms Litigation Inclusion in existing programmes Extension Lowering barriers to access Representation of informal worker organisations in: tripartite boards policy forums negotiating platforms commissions 20

21 Some of the drivers or things that have made extension possible Workers standing as workers, not as the poor and vulnerable, or marginalised women Good statistics and evidence about the economic importance of the informal economy Good budgetary/ fiscal analysis Legal experts who get it about the informal economy- as a rights issue and as an issue of employment creation, livelihood support Supportive formal trade unions Political election promises 21

22 Inclusion: The right to work - India Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act 7 of 2014 There must be a Town and Zonal Vending Committee in every city 2.5% of city population must be eligible for a vending certificate This overrides municipal laws Provides concrete actions that expand on the right to vend, and to have representation Key role of NASVI (National Alliance of Street Vendors of India), SEWA (Self-Employed Womens Association, India) and many civil society organisations over many years 22

23 Inclusion: Legal reforms Domestic workers in Brazil A constitutional amendment in 2013 granted domestic workers (more than 7 million) equal labour rights as other workers including 8 hour work day, 44 hour work week, minimum wage, overtime pay, maternity leave, severance pay and social security benefits. l Fish workers in Kerala state, India: For thirty years Kerala fisherpeople have had a social security fund providing access to social security benefits. The fund reaches more than a quarter million workers in this one state. Amended legislation in 2007 makes it compulsory for the owners/ exporters to whom the fisherpeople sell their fish to contribute to the fund i.e. even though they have a commercial relationship, and not an employer-employee relationship. What will influence implementation and compliance? 23

24 Inclusion: Litigation Bogota, Colombia: Bogota city authorities gave contracts to private firms to collect waste, excluding traditional collectives of recyclers from the tender process. The Association of Waste Recyclers of Bogota (ARB) litigated and won the right to compete for tenders in waste recycling markets. ARB also won the right to collect recyclables along street routes they have traditionally collected from. Livelihood protection Social protection? Same thing? 24

25 Inclusion in programmes through lowering barriers to access Programs may exist for which informal workers qualify, but access is too expensive in terms of income opportunities foregone, lack of information, confusing information, or complex registration procedures Ghana and the National Health Insurance Scheme special registration drive for the very poor women headload porters Immigrant domestic workers in Bangkok use mobile phones to inform each other about their rights to health services Self Employed Womens Association in India have community-based Information Centres which spread information about health services Large-scale health diagnostic camps (in Ahmedabad and in Durban) organised by worker organisations to bring health, and health referrals, closer to where people work 25

26 There is a strong gender dimension in official spaces such as social protection offices, police stations, home affairs offices critical of women who re applying for assistance, moralising, humiliating In all the above examples, a critically important feature was a local community worker/ leader who knew the health and social protection systems, and helped the informal workers navigate the health systems and facilities. 26

27 Inclusion through representation of informal worker organisations in social policy reforms Homeworkers in Thailand Homeworkers Protection Act B.E. 2553, 2011 passed after years of advocacy by Homenet Thailand (HNT) and others The law says that fair wages must be paid to industrial outworkers (with equal pay for men and women), there must be a written contract, and hirers have some responsibility for occupational safety and health. HNT is represented on the 2011 national Home Worker Protection Board. Tripartite committee of homeworkers, sub-contractor/ hirer representatives, and government officials. HNT was also deeply involved in the reform of the Thai universal health coverage system, monitoring implementation, participating in governance of social security fund (see Alfers and Lund, 2013, Policy Brief on WIEGO website) 27

28 Representation In India, SEWA and the NASVI (National Association of Street Vendors of India) closely engage with national commissions on the right to social security, child care, disaster management, urban governance In Ghana, the TUC represented informal workers interests in the development of the national health insurance system In Lima, Peru, headload porters in the main city market engaged, through their union, in an extended process of working with local government in regulating the weight of sacks of farm produce that they carry from the farm trucks in to the market (which leads to intense back and neck stress) 28

29 Social protection Need to protect and expand social protection But the reality of changed world of work means we also have to be aware of The link between child care provision and women s incomes should child care provision be one of the core social protection measures? Prevention of ill-health Intersection with municipal government/ urban planning around safer places of work The need to collaborate with other disciplines such as occupational health and safety 29

30 Thank you! 30