WIEGO: Women in Informal Employment Globalizing and Organizing
 

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Programme Areas:
Organization and Representation*

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NEW: July 2008
Video Release:
The Informal Economy & Trade Unions
Produced by the International Federation of Workers' Education Associations (IFWEA)

The Informal Economy - Video by IFWEA

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Problem Statement

The poorest segments of the working class- those working in the informal economy and especially women- are the least able to make their voices heard by policy makers, governments, employers, international agencies and others with the power to affect their lives. Informal workers need to organize to build confidence and power to take collective action, to gain recognition, and to represent themselves effectively. They need to organize to change the hostile economic, policy and legal environment in which they work. They need to organize if they are to change their lives. This is why WIEGO makes support for the organization and representation of workers in the informal economy, and especially informal women workers, an essential component of all its work.

The majority of the working poor work in the informal economy, with 60% of women workers being in informal employment. Over the past two decades, as globalization has intensified, the trend towards informal employment has increased, particularly in developing economies. This means that millions of workers work in insecure jobs for little pay. They are unprotected or inadequately protected by labour law. They have little or no access social protection. Some are self-employed, and often go unrecognized as workers, whilst others work for an employer but are denied the rights and benefits associated with a formal job. Lacking powerful organizations, their ability to effectively challenge their conditions is very limited.

However, this is beginning to change. Small, localized associations are uniting into larger alliances in cities, countries, regions and internationally. In Asia groups of homeworkers have joined together to form a series of country and regional homenets (Homenet South Asia and Homenet South East Asia). In Asia, Latin America and Africa, street and market vendor associations too are combining into large organizations (for example, NASVI -the National Alliance of Street Vendors of India), and the number of affiliates to StreetNet International, an international alliance of street and market vendors is growing. The trade union movement has recognized the need for informal workers to organize. In some
cases new unions of informal workers are being formed, or informal workers are joining existing unions - for example, ITUC (ICFTU (now ITUC) affiliates . Importantly SEWA (the long standing and largest organization of informal women workers) was accepted as an affiliate of ICFTU/ITUC in 2006. This is the first national union centre of informal workers to achieve affiliation. (Click here to read the speech given by Renana Jhabvala, National Coordinator of the ITUC affliate SEWA, to the ITUC Congress and here to read "Interview with Renana Jhabvala of SEWA: The ITUC Must Encourage Organising of Informal Workers" ).

Worker cooperatives are on the increase, and in Latin America waste collector cooperatives are combining into national organizations (see Medina 2005). In 2003 the first International Conference on Organizing in the Informal Economy was held in India, hosted by SEWA , and coordinated by an organizing committee of representatives of member-based organizations of informal workers and trade unions. This Committee was mandated by the Conference to continue its coordinating role as the International Coordinating Committee (ICC) of organizations organizing workers in the informal economy. In September 2006 the ICC organized a second international conference on Organizing in the Informal Economy, hosted this time by the Ghana Trades Union Congress (TUC). The conference agreed on a number of activities. These include holding an international conference in Mexico in 2009; producing a manual/guide for organizers tasked with organizing workers in the informal economy; convening a forum for trade union educators on organizing in the informal economy using the IFWEA Congress in 2007 to start the process.

Programme Objectives

The key objective of WIEGO’s Organization and Representation Programme is to work together with organizations of informal workers to network, help build capacity and strengthen organization so that they increase their visibility, voice and power. It seeks to do this through a combination of proactive and reactive work. It engages in, and facilitates, research, information and networking projects, and provides limited technical, educational and other support, on request, for the ICC and associated organizations.

Vision and Long Term Goals

The programme hopes to make a contribution to the development of:

  • a critical mass of organized informal workers, with an increasing number of organizations of informal workers linked together and to the international trade union and cooperative movements;
  • international networks of specific groups of informal workers, in addition to StreetNet and HomeNet, including waste collectors and domestic workers;
  • a user-friendly data base of organizations of informal workers, including case studies, to be used by organizations of informal workers and by researchers studying different organizing strategies;
  • an analysis of the types of policy and rule-setting institutions in which informal workers as a whole and specific groups of informal workers need representative voice; and case studies of how organizations of informal workers have gained representative voice in these institutions;
  • a favourable legal framework appropriate for informal wage workers of various kinds and own account workers; and
  • workers’ education to a large and growing share of informal workers.

Past Achievements

The WIEGO Organization and Representation Program was set up in 1997 with Dan Gallin, former Secretary General of the International Federation of Food, Tobacco, Agriculture and Allied Workers (IUF), and chair of the Global Labour Institute (GLI) as its director.

Homeworkers: Prior to the formation of WIEGO in 1997 many of its founding members were involved in providing research, advocating for and supporting homeworkers in the formation of HomeNet, and in their efforts to secure an international convention to recognize and promote home-based workers. After the adoption in 1996 of the ILO Convention on Homework #177, WIEGO, SEWA and UNIFEM joined forces to help extend organization and networks of homeworkers in South and South-East Asia, promote the Convention and influence policy on homeworkers. In 2000 they convened a conference for government officials, representatives of member-based organizations of informal workers, and researchers from five countries in South Asia resulting in the passage of the Kathmandu Declaration, which committed governments to promote national policies in support of home-based workers. HomeNet South and HomeNet South East Asia now include over 500 organizations of home-based workers that are working to influence national policies such as social protection.

Most recently, SEWA and UNIFEM co-hosted a policy conference on homebased workers in South Asia. For more information on this event, including the text of a speech on the ILO Convention on Homework given by Dan Gallin, please click here.

Street and Market Vendors: WIEGO has played an important role in support of street and market vendors. It helped facilitate the formation of the National Association of Street Vendors in India (NASVI), which was founded in 1998, and of StreetNet International, which was officially launched in 2002, by assisting with preliminary work such as helping to raise funds and carrying out background research on street vendors and their organizations. Through its Urban Policies Programme, WIEGO continues to provide research and engage in policy dialogues on street vendors (and other categories of informal workers). StreetNet International now has 25 affiliates across Africa, Asia and Latin America.

International Recognition for Informal Workers: In 2002 the International Labour Conference (ILC) of the ILO, adopted a resolution concerning decent work and the informal economy , where the fundamental principles and rights of workers, core labour standards and decent work are “ as applicable in the informal economy as in the formal economy”. In the year leading up to the ILC discussions, WIEGO identified and established links with member-based organizations of informal workers, NGOs with an explicit labour focus and other NGOs. It convened a series of regional preparatory workshops of organizations organizing informal workers in Asia, Africa, Europe, North America (and in 2003 in Latin America); consulted regularly with the ILO Task Force and provided technical inputs; prepared background documents (see Platform of Issues, WIEGO Flyer front and back). It then convened a 25 person strategic coalition to participate in the General Discussion of the Informal Economy at the ILC.

In addition to this WIEGO has hosted a number of workshops to encourage research and mapping of member-based organizations and their strategies; WIEGO members and partners have published articles and papers on organizations, organizing and representation (see side bar) and participated in the ILC and other conferences and workshops to carry out research and to support informal worker organizations.

Goals and current activities

In 2002 WIEGO decided that primary responsibility for networking organizations should shift to an international coordinating body consisting of representatives of member-based organizations (ICC) and that WIEGO Organization and Representation Programme would play a more information, research and supportive role. This new mandate is currently being implemented.

The short/medium term goals of the programme are:

  • to help identify and build a data base of existing organizations and alliances of informal workers;
  • to document their organizing strategies;
  • to take up research activities relevant to organizing in the informal economy such as on labour law;
  • to help facilitate networking amongst organizations, in particular amongst waste collector and domestic worker organizations;
  • to help build the capacity of organizations of informal workers through providing technical and capacity building services as requested; and
  • to provide support for the development of education materials, working with the International Federation of Workers’ Education Associations (IFWEA).

Four key projects are:

1) Data Base and Case Studies

The programme is building a database of member-based organizations organizing informal workers such as trade unions, associations, cooperatives and their various alliances, federations and networks. The database provides, as far as possible, names and contact details; information on organization type, scope of operation, number of members and affiliations/links; information on members’ occupations; organizational objectives and strategies, and the position of women in the organization.

This is work in progress and the information is uneven and incomplete. Organizations are dynamic and ever changing. WIEGO is grappling with how to best collect, verify and update its information. To assist the process it has initiated a survey and distributed over 300 questionnaires in English, Spanish, French and Portuguese (please click on the relevant language to view the survey).

WIEGO intends the database to be a living document that expands as our knowledge base increases, and is available on the WIEGO web site for use by organizations and by researchers. The database is comprised of two sections:

Organizational Profiles, which contains basic contact information, information about the occupations of the members, work location, the organization's type and scope, the number of members, and the other organizations to which the organization is affiliated; and

Organizational Strategy and Structure, which contains information about the organization's objectives, organizing strategy and organizing activities, bargaining tactics, educational activities, the structure of the organization, and the services the organization provides to its members.

 

The Organizational Profiles Database is available as a whole by clicking here or by region by clicking on the region in which the activities are taking place below:

The Organizational Strategy and Structure Database is available as a whole by clicking here.

WIEGO has used case studies and information from the database in preparing publications. The information has also been used to help develop education materials on organizing informal workers, and by organizations wanting to network with others in their sector.

2) Law and Informal Workers

Organizations of workers in the informal economy have identified exclusion or limited protection from labour and related law, or failure to implement the law, as a major block to organization and representation. The 2003 Conference on Organizing in the Informal Economy requested WIEGO to document and disseminate labour and other laws, policies and reforms for the informal workers. The 2006 ICC conference in Ghana confirmed that extending labour law protectection to informal workers was a priority, and that there was a need for research. One of the recommendations was to, “Conduct research to identify, document information on best practices on laws, policies and agreements affecting informal workers and develop channels to disseminate findings amongst various countries”.

The programme’s ongoing work includes reviewing literature and monitoring developments in labour law applicable to informal workers, and documenting these (an observatory). The programme has identified key challenges and developed a research project proposal on labour law and the informal economy, with a focus on own account workers. The aim of the project is to contribute to the development of a favourable legal framework for informal workers, and to draw up model laws that could be useful for organizations of informal workers when engaging with policy and lawmakers. Research partners and funders for the project are being sought.

As part of the project WIEGO participated with StreetNet and members of the ICC in the discussion on the “Employment Relationship” at the International Labour Conference, June 2006. Whilst only dealing with workers in an employment relationship, the recommendation of the ILC could be used as a tool when negotiating with national governments to extend labour law to groups of workers who are currently excluded such as those in disguised or unclear employment relationships. It could be particularly important for homeworkers. Click here to read the full Recommendation and Resolution .

 


Background Documents for the 2006 International Labour Conference

 

3) International Network of Waste Collectors

To date the growing number of member-based organizations of waste collectors, cooperatives, trade unions, federations and various other forms of organization have not had the opportunity to come together internationally, and build global linkages and networks. Working with members of the ICC, waste collector organizations, researchers and others, WIEGO Organization and Representation Programme is helping plan and prepare for an international conference of waste collector organizations, where organizations will share experiences and organizing strategies, identify issues and discuss future cooperation and the possibility of a new waste collector “net”. The programme is currently building contacts and collecting and disseminating information on waste collector organizations. Funding has been obtained for the project and a programme towards the conference is being developed. The conference will be held in Latin America around September 2007. Watch out for further details of the conference.

If you have information on informal waste collector organisations and/or are an organization interested in participating in this initiative, please contact Marais Canali via email.

 

4) Protection for Domestic Workers: Forming an International Network

Domestic/household workers, who are mainly women, are amongst the least recognized and protected workers, and often suffer slave-like working and living conditions. Many are migrant workers from rural areas or from other countries. Many are children. WIEGO was a member of the Steering Group that organized an international seminar, with the theme Protection for Domestic Workers, in November 2006 in Amsterdam. Representatives of domestic/household workers’ unions, associations and regional/international networks, global and national trade unions and support NGOs, from around the world, attended the conference. They agreed to set up an interim working group to explore the need and potential for an international network for the rights of domestic workers. One of its tasks is to explore, in collaboration with the Global Unions, the possibility for an ILO Convention on the rights of domestic workers. In addition, they released a set of recommendations for further action and are in the process of finalizing a report of the event, which will be available in March 2007.

 

 

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