Ten Trade Union Actions - Inclusive Cities

| Chapter 3 | POSSIBLE ACTIONS |1 ForewordAgain: those who commit themselves toimproving the working circumstances ofthe informal economy workers, can try toachieve this in several ways. In this manualwe have drawn attention to the legalstrategy, by which we understand:• promote the application of existingnational and international labour standardsto the informal economy workers;and• acquire new rights for workers in thevarious sectors of the informal economy.With this strategy we try to strengthen thelegal status of the informal economyworkers. This status includes all therights (and obligations) that apply to agiven group of workers, regardless thesource they emanate from. In Part 1,under 3, we gave a survey of the mainsources in this field.Recognition by law is insufficient toimprove the working circumstances ofthe informal economy workers. If rightsare not respected, they must be claimedor enforced. After the seminars we notethat a lot remains to be done in this field.Signing ILO conventions and participatingin ILO programmes does not guaranteethat basic labour rights are actuallyrespected.With the help of the trade union the informaleconomy workers can claim theirrights. This means that they must haveaccess to affordable legal assistance.That the labour inspection and the labouradministration work efficiently. Thatjudges are independent and pronouncejudgment in the interest of the weakerparty. That transgression of the rightleads to sanctions. Trade union actionwill therefore have to focus on that.It is necessary to take several factors intoconsideration when defining the rightstrategy: the social and economic situationof the country and sector one isemployed in, the historical, cultural andreligious backgrounds, the size and compositionof the target group, the availableresources, etc.42