Documents informal economy 167 results

"Der Beitrag beschäftigt sich mit der Frage nach den Arbeitsbedingungen, kollektiven Ressourcen und der Organisierung von vor allem migrantischen Arbeitskräften auf der Reinigungsplattform Helpling. Auf Basis qualitativer Forschung in Berlin gehen die Autor*innen der Frage nach, weshalb sich Arbeit und Organisierung auf Reinigungsplattformen in anderen Dynamiken vollzieht als in anderen Bereichen der Plattformarbeit. Sie argumentieren, dass die räumliche Verteilung auf Privathaushalte, die Abwesenheit einer Betriebssozialisation und die rechtlichen Rahmenbedingungen eine Organisierung von Arbeitskräften auf Reinigungsplattformen erschweren. Gleichzeitig zeigen sie, dass dies nicht zu einer Abwesenheit von Organisierung und sozialen Kämpfen führt, sondern vielmehr deren Formen verändert. Arbeiter*innen auf Helpling in Berlin organisieren sich vorwiegend in informellen Gruppen zur gegenseitigen Hilfe, durch eine Beratungsstelle sowie in migrantischen politischen Gruppen. Aus diesen Umständen ergeben sich sowohl Potenziale wie Hürden für die Entwicklung kollektiver Gegenmacht, die auch für die Analyse anderer Formen der Plattformarbeit relevant sind."

"This paper argues that there is a risk that policy proposals for a ‘greener workforce' will replicate current gendered inequalities. Some ‘Just Transition' frameworks for addressing workers' concerns about a green economy expressly focus on male-dominated sectors. Others, while recognizing the need to include women, fail to identify or counteract the patriarchal power relations which drive inequality. Part I demonstrates the extent to which some of the most prominent Just Transition frameworks are dominated by a male norm. Part II examines how the dominance of the male norm can be confronted and addressed. Simply referring to gender equality is not sufficient. Instead, Just Transition frameworks should be scrutinized under the lens of a conception of substantive gender equality based on four dimensions: redressing disadvantage; addressing stigma, stereotyping, prejudice and violence; facilitating participation; and achieving structural change. Part III uses the four-dimensional framework of gendered substantive equality to point a way towards a future reconstruction of the labour force that can incorporate values that are both green and feminist. Part IV turns to women's role in bringing about change and argues that to truly engender Just Transition frameworks, participation should avoid essentializing women and instead be based on collective and grass-roots organization."

"This paper focuses on the labour-environment nexus from the perspective of developing countries, using the case of one of the most vulnerable groups of workers, namely, wastepickers in Brazil. For labour law, the case of wastepickers reveals the limits and potential of labour law to include informal workers, especially poor informal workers from the Global South. We argue that labour rights are essential for these workers even though their work does not fit in the description of an employment relationship. Labour law needs to expand epistemologically to capture different workers and influence the distinct dimensions of their lives. For this expansion of the law to become effective, labour rights and the promotion of collective organization must be recognized within a framework of coordinated policy reforms across labour, environment, and other areas of social policy. "

"Romania has been, for the past decade, not only the country with the highest in-work poverty among EU member states, but – unlike most of the others – also a country with a steadily growing welfare polarisation of the workforce. This article aims to explain why Romania still finds itself in this situation. The article documents the increasing differences in exposure to poverty and social exclusion between employees and the self-employed and points to the mix of fac tors responsible. Unlike most European countries, where a certain gap between employees and non-employees is the result of the flexibilisation of the labour market, in Romania this appears rather to be the result of a unique inherited structure of employment alongside an inadequate package of social and fiscal measures which has kept and further pushed the self-employed into informality. Thus, Romania is still searching for a policy solution that would allow the existing self-employed to become ‘visible' in the formal economy and for a diversification of forms of employment. Finally, the article explores the possibilities for a rever sal of the current trend. "

"Negotiations are a valuable and important tool for increasing the voice of workers in the informal economy. This paper provides empirical evidence from Africa, Asia and the Americas on negotiations and collective bargaining by workers in the informal economy. These practices demonstrate that negotiations involving workers in the informal economy, including those that culminate in collective agreements, are key to ensuring the fair distribution of the fruits of economic progress and labour protection to workers in many countries. They are also an important tool for reducing informalization trends. The paper also shows the multiple challenges workers in the informal economy are facing when organizing and entering into negotiations and outlines some possible pathways on how these can be reduced."

"The shadow economy (or “second economy”, “underground economy”, “informal sector”, “informal economy”, etc.) is present in more or less every country in the world. It has already been present for a long period of time in Montenegro and Serbia, and has been strengthened by the actual economic and social crisis and the processes of transition. During this time of crisis, symbolised by massive unemployment and forced leave, a drastic fall in living standards and very modest economic activities within the so-called regular enterprise sector, the shadow economy has played a very important role as a unique social shock absorber, providing protection from even greater levels of poverty. On the other hand, employees in the shadow economy are deprived of basic levels of security and they are effectively invisible. For the state, the shadow economy reduces tax income and is proof of a disrespect for juridical regulations and norms. In addition, the shadow economy can adversely affect the management of economic development, by distorting the picture of the real economic and social situation. The shadow economy simultaneously both increases the divisions in an already dramatically polarised society, as well as alleviating, or at least decelerating, the causes of the impoverishment of the urban classes. In this article, we provide some basic information about the operation of the shadow economy in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia."

"This article focuses on an action-research project which is attempting to extend occupational health and safety to a group of street traders in Durban, South Africa, using a variety of different (and sometimes unconventional) institutional actors. The article is written from the perspective of key people who have played a role in conceptualizing and administering the project and is intended to deepen the conversation about what it means to extend occupational health to the informal economy. It explores this question through a reflection on three key project activities: the setting up of a trader-led health and safety committee, an occupational health and safety training course, and a clinical health assessment. It concludes with a discussion of the issues that emerge from the reflections of project participants, which include the need to bring occupational health and urban health into closer conversation with one another, the need to be cognizant of local “informal” politics and the impact that has on occupational health and safety interventions, and the need to create greater opportunities for occupational health and safety professionals to interact with workers in the informal economy."