Occupational Health and Safety in the Informal Economy
WIEGO is starting a three year research project about occupational health and safety for informal workers. We will work in six countries, and in 2009 have started in Ghana and Brazil. We will work through WIEGO affiliates of informal workers, with street vendors, waste pickers and homebased workers, and others.
The field of Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) does not usually cover informal workers. It focuses on formal workplaces, not on where the majority of workers really work – on the streets, in their own homes, on garbage dumps and landfills, for example. OHS defines health problems very narrowly, and does not see the worker in the context of family, living and working in very poor conditions.
In this project, we want to find out how to develop OHS in a way that can better meet the needs of informal workers. We want to explore new ways of supporting informal workers, including new forms of support from governments, and from those who profit from the work of informal workers, but do not contribute to improving their place of work.
Some of the research questions are:
- What existing data sources are there about health and safety of workers in the informal economy? How can these statistics be improved?
- What are the key health and safety risks faced by informal workers depending on
- occupation group
- place of work
- What do informal workers say would improve their working environments?
- Are there examples of successful and enforced regulation which can be adapted to those at risk in the informal sector in other settings?
- If promotion of health and safety in the informal sector is in some instances more realistic than regulation, what has worked well before? Why did it work well?
- What could the role of organized labour be in assisting in improving extension of OHS support and regulation, or assisting with self-regulation?
- What are possible alliances between informal workers and other social movements around OHS issues?
We will work with in-country researchers, and with informal worker organisations. We will choose one city to work in. We would like to hold workshops with worker organisations, to find out about their needs. We will find out about who defines, regulates and controls OHS in the country. Through the organizations, our aim would be to arrange dialogues between the worker organizations and those in government and in the industries in which informal workers work. The last phase of the project would be development of materials for workers, for advocacy around OHS issues.