Download the file - United Nations Rule of Law

The conclusions stressed the need to ‘eliminatethe negative aspects of informality while at thesame time ensuring that opportunities for livelihoodand entrepreneurship are not destroyed,and promoting the protection and incorporationof workers and economic units in the informaleconomy into the mainstream economy.’ With aspecial focus on countries struggling with abjectpoverty and with a rapidly growing labour force,the ILO resolution urged that measures taken‘should not restrict opportunities for those whohave no other means of livelihood. However, itshould not be a job at any price or under any circumstances.’A clear challenge for follow-up is todemonstrate how job quantity and quality can gotogether and how respect for basic labour rightsmight promote productivity growth. A relatedchallenge is to ensure that activities targetingthe informal economy do not lead to the growthof poor quality employment, but rather to theupgrading of working conditions. The conclusionsalso call for an upward transition, not a downwardpull along the continuum of decent work.Beyond the four core labour standards there is arange of standards, including minimum wages,occupational safety and health, working hours,and maternity protection, which directly impactworking conditions. These are determined nationallyand their application varies with the level ofdevelopment of the country and its capacity toenforce these standards. 44 One convention of directrelevance to the informal economy is the ILOHome Work Convention, adopted in 1996, whichworks to extend legal empowerment to homeworkers (industrial outworkers who work fromtheir homes), who are predominantly women.Compliance with these standards can be viewedas progressive, where different segments of thelabour market experience different degrees ofprotection. In reality, ‘the formal shades into theinformal’ and people move between work opportunitieswith different degrees of protection. 45 Thegoal is to progressively achieve compliance with abroader range of standards throughout the wholeeconomy, leading to gradual formalisation of theinformal economy.It is instructive to highlight provisions in ILOConventions and Recommendations that maybe applicable to the informal economy. Theseinternational labour standards provide guidanceto national economic and social policies, includinghow such policies can be applied to decentwork and the informal economy. These Conventionsand Recommendations may be understoodunder the following broad objectives: (a) humancapabilities and empowerment, which relateto the core labour standards, (b) labour marketpolicy frameworks for better governance, and(c) protection of people. 46 These standards formthe backbone of ILO’s Decent Work agenda, andcover not only the formal sector but also, mostimportantly, the informal economy. For it is in theinformal economy where decent work deficits arefound to be most challenging and disturbing.Towards a Global Social ContractAs noted above, the international communityhas endorsed three outcomes of the ILO’s internationallabour conferences over the past decade,which, taken together, provide a strategicframework for advancing the realisation of labourrights, reducing poverty, and expanding equityworldwide. The 1998 Declaration of FundamentalPrinciples and Rights at Work, the 1999Decent Work Agenda, and the 2002 Resolutionon the Informal Economy have made significantcontributions to what is now a widely-sharedcommitment to universally ensure a minimumfloor of fundamental labour rights; they have alsorecognised that the final objective should be the151