Employmentweb_low

employment relations and health inequalities: a conceptual and empirical overvieW
Fassa, & Kriebel, 2006; Fonchigong, 2005; Hernandez, Zetina, Tapia, Ortiz,
& Soto, 1996; nilvarangkul et al., 2006; lowenson, 1998; rongo, Barten,
Msamanga, Heederick, & Dolmans, 2004; Iriart et al., 2006; Santana &
loomis, 2004, Gutberlet & Baeder, 2008). Case studies, however, are a
useful approach to illustrating and understanding the social conditions,
working conditions, occupational hazards and health problems faced by
many of these workers around the globe (see Case studies 22, 23 and 24).
There are other, more insidious side effects of the informal economy.
In addition to many who are informally employed, self-employed workers
are often ineligible for wage-dependent social benefits and are rarely
visible in official statistics. They do not have a formal job contract and there
is no employer. In poor countries, most maintenance services, such as
painting, cleaning services, and baby-sitting, are performed by informal
labourers. Moreover, their income will vary according to their ability to find
jobs, quality and type of service, and their social or health insurance
depends on out-of-pocket payments. Because they are not associated with
a firm, they are often marginalised as informal labourers (IlO, 2007).
This lack of social security coverage is largely concentrated in the
informal economies of poor countries, which are generally a larger
source of employment for women than for men. Work in the informal
economy is characterised by low levels of skill and productivity and
low or irregular incomes. In some parts of the world, the growth of a
"migration industry" comprising private recruitment agents,
overseas employment promoters, human resource suppliers, and a
host of other legal and illegal intermediaries, has caused a spike in
female labour migration (IlO, 2003a; 2003b).
according to the IlO, the global assessment of the informal
economy can be made using two main types of indicators: "vulnerable
employment", a global but indirect measure of informal employment,
and "employment in the informal economy", a partial but more direct
measure. Vulnerable employment is a new indicator that estimates the
sum of own-account workers and contributing family workers as a
share of total employment. Since these two groups of workers are less
likely to have formal work arrangements, this indicator may help to
assess the informalisation of labour markets (IlO, 2008). Globally, it is
estimated that in 2007 five out of ten people who worked were either
contributing family workers or own-account workers. not even half of
all those employed enjoy the possible security that wage and salaried
jobs could provide (IlO, 2008).
Employment in the informal economy is defined as a percentage of
total employment (i.e., the ratio of the number of persons employed in
the informal economy to the total of employed persons). The
information available shows wide variations in definitions and
"This body is my only asset. on days i
work, i earn. when i am sick, i cannot earn.
my fire stays cold those days. There is no
other body, no other asset to fall back
on..."
source: Kantibehn, an agricultural laborer,
India. in rose, K. (1992). Where women are
leaders: The SEWA movement in
India. london: Zed books.
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