Coloquio internacional sobre los sindicatos y el Sector no estructurado. Conclusiones y recomendaciones

International Symposium on Trade Unions
and the Informal Sector, Geneva, 18-22 October 1999

Conclusions and recommendations

Contrary to many predictions, the informal sector is not diminishing. It is increasing everywhere. Globalization and the associated search for lower labour costs is one significant factor in this. Privatization and the contracting out of services and activities are others. Contrary to some views the informal sector is, by and large, neither innovative nor full of opportunity. Working conditions in the sector are oppressive and dangerous. Thousands of children, often as young as 4 years old, work in this sector; most incomes are well below the poverty line; workers usually do not have access to state-provided social protection, training, and social services; exploitation and infringement of workers' rights are common. The vast majority of people do not work in the informal sector by choice and it is certainly not for them a stepping stone to improvement. Rather it represents a means of survival.

There is a high proportion of women workers in the sector. In general, the working conditions for men and women are different, for example in terms of hours and type of work and also remuneration. Due to economic, social and cultural factors women are particularly vulnerable among the working poor of the sector. The informal sector is heterogenous in terms of activities and occupations, and its features vary considerably from region to region and from country to country. Participants discussed at length the difficulties in precisely defining the informal sector. They agreed on the necessity to avoid using this concept as a catch-all term. Moreover, it was agreed that the informal sector should refer to informal work or informal employment, and not only to informal enterprises.

Three main segments were identified in the informal sector workforce. The first segment corresponds to the owners or employers of micro-enterprises including farmers who may employ a few workers and/or apprentices. They do not generally constitute a target group for trade union organizing activities but may benefit from trade union lobbying of governments and international organizations. The second segment comprises own-account workers, which is comprised of the nominally self-employed and street vendors and small farmers. It is the largest and most visible segment in the informal sector. Despite being nominally self-employed many workers in this segment are economically dependent on a single enterprise or a middleman for their survival. The third segment encompasses employees engaged in full-time or casual employment. It includes wage labourers working in micro-enterprises on a regular, casual or contract basis, unpaid workers, including family members and apprentices, homeworkers and paid domestic workers. The workforce in this segment is often physically hidden and therefore more difficult to locate, contact and organize.

Participants recognized that this classification did not fully convey the complexity of the sector but it provided a basis for the further development of policies. It was decided that trade union recruitment efforts should focus on both the second and third segments mentioned above.

1. Recommendations for trade unions

2. Recommendations for governments and international organizations

3. Recommendations for follow-up activities by the Bureau for Workers' Activities