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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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