1 security for women working informally: between labour law, urban regulation and social protection...
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Security for women working informally: Between labour law, urban regulation and
social protection
Francie LundWIEGO: Social Protection Programme
andUniversity of KwaZulu-Natal:
School of Built Environment and Development Studies
At the ConferenceWomen and Poverty: A Human Rights Approach
Kigali, Rwanda, 29th April 2014
The argument in summary To address the poverty of women, there is a need to address
women’s employment The majority of working women are employed informally. Informal work is without legal or social protection. Thus (with a few exceptions), labour law does not reach women in
the informal economy. It is unlikely that many informal workers will rapidly be formalized
(as being debated in the ILC of the ILO in 2014 and 2105). Women who work informally fall through cracks between different
regulatory regimes – especially between national and municipal level.
What other interventions can protect the security of poorer women workers?
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Informal employment as a share of non-agricultural employment
Source: Heintz for ILO and WIEGO 2012
REGION % LOWEST % HIGHEST %
South Asia 82 Sri Lanka 62 India 84
East and SE Asia
65 Thailand 42 Indonesia 73
Sub-Saharan Africa
63 South Africa 33 Mali 82
Middle East and N. Africa
45 Turkey 32 EgyptGaza & West Bank
5157
Latin America 51 Uruguay 40 Bolivia 75
East Europe &Central Asia
11 Serbia 6 Moldova 16
Stylised gender patterns in formal and informal
employment
• More women than men in informal work• Men earn more in both formal and informal work• Men are more likely to employ others• Women experience a more defined and lower
glass ceiling (a cap on upward mobility)• When entering the urban informal sector, men
have more work experience than women• Where women have worked before, it is likely to
have been in domestic work
Poverty Risk
Average Earnings
Segmentation by Sex
Low
High
Employers
Predominantly Men
Informal Wage
Workers: “Regular”
Men and Women
Inf ormal Wage Workers: Casual
Industrial Outworkers/Homeworkers
Predominantly Women
High
Low
Unpaid Family Workers
Own Account Operators
Segmentation in the informal economy
Source: Marty Chen, WIEGO Working Paper No. 1
International Classification of Status in Employment Self-Employed in Informal Enterprises (i.e.
unregistered and/or small) 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
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Labour law
Is premised on the employer-employee relationship
The majority of informal workers are self-employed, and may employ others
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Informal workers
Self-employed workers: by definition, outside the scope of labour regulation
Employees: outside the scope of labour regulation Labour regulation is limited to formal physical
places of work Shops, offices, factories, mines NOT sidewalks, informal markets, private homes,
backyards, refuse dumps By definition, informal workers are outside the
scope of work-related/ employment-based social protection
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Occupations and places of work in which women are numerous: autonomy and risk
homeworkers/ industrial outworkers own private dwelling
domestic workers someone else’s private dwelling
street and market vendors public space controlled by local authority, or
privately owned markets waste pickers
public or private waste dumps residential areas
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National legislation - 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
WIEGO’s Law and Informality project monitors implementation of the Act
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National legislation – homeworkers in Thailand
At least half a million homeworkers, the majority of whom are women
Many work for an industrial enterprise Homeworkers Protection Act B.E. 2553, 2011
Fair wages, with equal pay for men and women Hirer must provide a contract and ensure
occupational health and safety Hirer must establish a committee that gives access
to courts in labour disputes Active involvement and advocacy for a decade
by Homenet ThailandSource: WIEGO: Winning Legal Rights
for Thailand’s Homeworkers12
Actions against informal tradersSource: WIEGO Evictions Database June 2012 through March 2013, mainstream English- and Spanish language news items (thus incomplete)
Livelihood impacts included: Loss or confiscation of merchandise Demolition of stalls or kiosks Arrests and/ or imprisonment Violence – including beatings, teargas and rubber
bullets Fines
“I had over 200 men’s suits … they have all gone. They have destroyed my life.”
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Litigation in Bogota, Colombia and in Durban, South Africa – informal workers against the municipality
Bogota municipality gave contracts to private firms to collect waste, and excluded traditional collectives of waste recyclers from tender process.
Association of Waste recyclers of Bogota (ARB) won the right to compete in waste recycling markets.
ARB won the right to collect along street routes they have traditionally collected from.
Durban municipality allowed private developer to design a mall which would destroy the traditional fruit and veg market
Legal Resources Centre (NGO) won the case on administrative law: the municipal tender process was judged to have been irregular
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Warwick Junction in Durban CBD
Deprivation of property
South African Constitution Section 25: ‘No law may permit arbitrary deprivation of property
…’ Under consideration for litigation by an NGO which
supports informal workers in Durban, when vendors’ goods are confiscated by municipality
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Social protection
Informal workers may receive social protection benefits as citizens
Rare examples of successful, sustainable social protection provision
Likely exclusion from global social protection floor Link between child care and women’s incomes and
thereby to women’s economic empowerment Importance of informal women workers’
participation in policy forums/ policy reform But SEWA, NASVI, Homenet Thailand, and others
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Different sectors suggest different possibilities for social protection Homeworkers/ industrial outworkers
Improve the conditions under which they are incorporated into value chains
Ethical Trading Initiative and codes of conduct Thailand’s social security fund
Waste pickers Co-ops negotiating with local government and MNCs Extended Product Responsibility
Street and market vendors Health and safety improvements through local
government Urban design and equipment design Infrastructure provision 18
Recognition and representation
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Recognition in law as workers Registration at city level as workers Recognition as workers in different occupations
Vendors, construction workers, domestic workers, etc Recognition of economic contribution to GDP, and to the
local economy Representation as interested parties
Finally
The importance of infrastructural provision (by local cities and towns) as a form of social and economic security, to secure better incomes.
Women and poverty: The importance of child care in social protection – because of the link with women’s incomes. Child care is not at present an ILO core component of social security.
Social policy and social protection cannot redress the effects of macro-economic and trade policies that reinforce inequality and insecurity and exclusion.
It may be that commercial rights and property rights and access to public space are more pertinent than labour law to women’s security.
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