INFORMAL ECONOMY - DECENT WORK - POVERTY>>Documents

Promoting social protection is part of the approach that aims at bolstering decent work and poverty eradication For the ILO, social protection is about people and families having security in the face of vulnerabilities and contingencies, it is having access to health care, and it is about working in safety.
This objective is still far from reality, mainly in the poorest countries of the informal economy.

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While women are many times discriminated and edged out of the labour world, they are strongly represented in the informal economy and, trade unions of women in the informal economy have been emphasized. Home-based textile workers in Argelia, Brazil and the United States, street vendors in India and Moldavia, free-lance hairdressers in Ghana, peasant farmers in Peru, home-based child carers in Croatia; fishmongers in Chad…all have their tale to tell as trade unionists. The fundamental trade union principle of solidarity is at stake, but so is the very survival of the trade union movement worldwide.

Infante, R.; Sunkel, G. Chile. Trabajo decente y calidad de vida familiar, 1990-2000. (Chile. Decent Work and quality of family life. 1999-2000). Lima: ILO, 2004.

The purpose of this book is to contribute to the understanding of relations between decent work and the quality of family life. In particular, it follows one of the objectives suggested by ILO regarding the promotion of labour policies and institutions that encourage dialogue among social partners and advance towards decent work.
It explores the compatibility between work in the productive environment and the quality of family life and social life of workers. The study analyses Chile's experience during the nineties, a succesful period in terms of economic growth, where poverty was reduced and important changes at the family and labour structure level took place.

This Bulletin analyses the close relationship that exists between the concepts of decent work and vocational training. The notion of decent work, launched by ILO Director General in 1999, has proved to be a useful tool to bring together several strategies and objectives, revaluing the ethical component of the labour world, in times when old paradigms are being questioned. What the different articles of the present Bulletin look into is precisely the kinship of vocational training with this concept. None of these papers is definitive, as they deal with a concept under construction.

Inter-American Technical Bulletin on Vocational Training. Vocational Training, productivity and decent work. Montevideo, Cinterfor, N° 153, 2002.

This Bulletin includes the main papers presented at the Inter-American Tripartite Seminar on Vocational Training, Productivity and Decent Work, held in Rio de Janeiro in May 2002, and it also includes other articles which tackle the subjects dealt with at that important event from different perspectives. Moreover, it introduces a series of figures which were prepared based on the national reports presented by each delegation at the Seminar which give an outline of the general overview of vocational training in the countries represented as well as some private initiatives taken up by different social actors in this field.

ILO. Changing patterns in the world of work. Report of the Director General, ILC, 95th Session 2006, Geneva; ILO, 2006

ILO. Perú: Propuesta del Programa Nacional de Trabajo Decente, 2004- 2006. Informe Preliminar. (Peru: A proposal made by the National Programme for Decent Work 2004-2006. Preliminary Report). Lima: ILO Sub-regional Office for the Andean Countries, 2003.

This document is structured in four large parts: in the first one, the main deficits of decent work in Peru are identified, in the second one, policies for the reduction of the detected decent work deficits are presented. Then, the third one introduces the criteria to set priority objectives and finally a short and medium-term plan of activities is outlined to be implemented in the country.

ILO. Decent work in the Americas: An agenda for the Hemisphere, 2006-2015. Sixteenth American Regional Meeting. Brasilia, May 2006.

ILO. Reducing the decent work deficit: A global challenge. Summary of the Director-General's Report to the 2001 International Labour Conference.

ILO. International Labour Conference, 90th Session, 2002. Decent work and the informal economy. Report VI, Geneva, 2002.

ILO/PROMICRO. La microempresa en América Central. (The microenterprise in Central America). San Jose, Costa Rica, 2000.

This document intends to describe urban microenterprises in Central America. Based on the data obtained, it can be said that they are extremely poor productive units whose main rationale is probably family consumption. It refers to self-employment and to a group of economic units with a very inadequate insertion in the labour market, particularly of non-tradable products, and with little chances of competing in a globalised market. In accordance with this, PROMICRO sets the lines of action through the services required by these economic units so as to support their economic growth development.

IOE. The Informal Economy.

The main policy objective of the IOE is to try and bring this informal activity within the parameters of the formal economy through promoting policies which aim to provide an enabling environment for those engaged in informal activities to be able to progress to the formal economy without destroying, in the meantime, the only means of livelihood available to millions of people in developing countries.

Montero, C. La formación de capital humano en empleos atípicos: el caso del trabajo a domicilio. (Training human resources for non-typical jobs: the case of home work). Santiago, Chile: ECLAC, 2000.

The increase in the amount of people taking up atypical jobs and the State's withdrawal from training for work have raised the question of how the workforce of such jobs gets training.
On the basis of the available statistics, a typology was elaborated with the cases corresponding to the different types of jobs observed in Chile. In-depth interviews were conducted in each case.
The material gathered allows to put forward the hypotheses of human resources training mechanisms. It also allows to identify the deficiencies of the role of enterprises and the State in terms of training financing and competency acquisition.

Oliva Alonzo, R. (Coord.) Trámites, costos, tiempo y dificultades que deben enfrentar los empresarios del sector informal para incorporarse al sector formal de la economía guatemalteca. (Proceedings, costs, time and difficutlies encountered by entrepreneurs of the informal sector to enter the formal sector of the Guatemalan economy). Guatemala: University of San Carlos de Guatemala (USAC); Guatemalan Programme to Support the Informal Sector (PROSIGUA), 1999.

This field research intends to inform about the offices where enterprises can be legally registered in Guatemala, the proceedings to be followed, requirements to be fulfilled and the times and costs to be assumed. It also seeks to determine the main reasons why many entrepreneurs remain in the informal sector of the economy. With the purpose of establishing the possible reasons, the field research deemed it necessary to base itself on some interviews to micro entrepreneurs.
In order to achieve these objectives, two types of written instruments were prepared: interview pads and observation guides. All in all, seven instruments were used. These are enumerated here together with the results obtained by using them and their interpretation.

Revilla Vergara, A.F. La modernización del sector informal y las cargas tributarias y administrativas a las empresas en el Perú. (The modernisation of the informal sector and the tax and administrative burden for enterprises in Peru). Labour Bulletin. Lima, ILO n. 92, 1999.

This paper revises the administrative and tax charges that affect Peruvian enterprises. The purpose is to identify the unnecessary costs to which they are subject. Their elimination would facilitate the process of bringing many informal enterprises to formality and it would reduce the transaction costs for both formal and informal enterprises.
The changes occurred in terms of taxes, fiscal policies and their effects on collection and informalization are studied. Finally, it suggests reforms at various levels: fiscal policies, collection agents and tax controls.

Tokman, V. (Coord.) De la informalidad a la modernidad. (From informality to modernity) Santiago, Chile: ILO, 2001.

By a comparative analysis among countries, this publication tackles several issues such as the labour and tax legislation and its impact on microenterprises; the town council and street vendors; special regimes of institutional promotion and development; informal urban microenterprises and their integration; and small and microenterprise trade unions in the countries of the region.
Furthermore, it presents conclusions and recommendations of the studies conducted in several countries so that they may contribute to further integration between public authorities and micro entrepreneurs and workers from the informal sector. The purpose is to promote the incorporation of the sector into the structures and economic and social processes through the access to formality.

Trejos, J.D. El trabajo decente y el sector informal de los países del istmo centroamericano. (Decent work and the informal sector in the countries of the Central American Isthmus). Labour Bulletin. San Jose, Costa Rica: ILO, N° 158.

This document contains some measurement exercises and an analysis on the informal sector carried out in different countries of the region. It determines the dimension of employment in such segment, the characteristics of the labour force and the indicators on their employment conditions, such as salaries, income, working days, etc. In this way, it seeks to offer some evidence about the conditions of decent work in the informal sector, by taking into account its heterogeneity. Finally, it includes some challenges posed to employment policies regarding this sector.

Walker, Noelle-Nicole. Domestic Workers in Jamaica. Gender dialogue, n. 10, 2003

This paper addresses how and why domestic workers in Jamaica are disenfranchised, with particular emphasis on the law's inability to combat their exploitation in the labour force. My starting point is an online newspaper article entitled "Coping as a Domestic Helper", which was based on a study investigating the living standard and coping strategies of minimum wage earners. In Jamaica domestic workers fall into three main categories - the residential worker, the non-residential weekly worker and the daily worker. Domestic workers are undervalued and their plight is especially grievous because they are characterized by a number of features that combine to have an exponentially negative effect on their social worth.