INTERNATIONAL OSH PROGRAMME ON THE INFORMAL SECTOR
W. D. Salter
ILO South-East Asia and the Pacific Multidisciplinary Advisory Team
Manila, Philippines
1.BACKGROUND
The International Labour Organization (ILO) introduced the concept of the informal sector more than 25 years ago. The informal sector has been understood to mean very small-scale units producing and distributing goods and services, and consisting largely of independent, self-employed producers in urban and rural areas of developing countries, some of which also employ family labour and/or few hired workers or apprentices; which operates with very little capital or none at all; which utilize a low level of technology and skills; which therefore operates at a low level of productivity; and which generally provides very low and irregular income and highly unstable employment to those who work in it. It also includes activities that are carried out without formal approval from authorities and escape the administrative machinery responsible for enforcing legislation and similar instruments.[1]
This definition, itself adapted from the ILO, does not perhaps capture the importance or the dynamism of the informal sector, which is a major provider of urban jobs. In urban areas, informal sector enterprises include a very wide range of industries, occupations and working situations. These include street food or market vendors, small automotive and machine repair shops, small-scale manufacturers such as garments, shoes or handicrafts[2], waste recyclers, beauty parlours and transport drivers, amongst others. Estimates in some South-East Asian and South Asian cities put its share of the total workforce at around 50 to 60 per cent. A substantial number of these workers are women. Workers and owner-operators in small and micro-enterprises are not just a majority of the world’s working people. They build markets, expand trade, manage natural resources, fight poverty, generate employment, strengthen communities, support families and feed most of the world’s children.[3]
It is difficult to form an accurate picture of the informal sector in any one country, let alone the world, or even just the Asian region, as a whole. It seems, however, that throughout the developing world, the number of informal sector workers is increasing. Of course, in some of the countries that had been part of the “East Asian Miracle”, the informal sector’s share of the labour market had been falling before the financial crisis, but it has grown enormously in Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and elsewhere in the last year.
If it is difficult to find reliable information about those who work in the informal sector, it is even more difficult to pinpoint their problems relating to occupational safety and health. Very often, informal sector operators and workers may not even be registered with the appropriate regulatory authorities. They may also be imperfectly covered in the national statistical collections such as labour force surveys. Since few informal sector workers are covered by social security, and especially by workers’ compensation, the information on occupational accidents and diseases that is collected as a result of claims ignores these workers. Since labour inspectors in developing countries are not well enough resourced even to inspect adequately and often enough the medium and large enterprises, they can rarely if ever turn their attention to the problems of informal sector workers. So information on informal sector workers is also missing from data collected by labour inspectors during their regular inspections for compliance with occupational safety and health standards.
We have recently begun to see large-scale surveys that provide some information on occupational safety and health in the informal sector. In the Philippines, in particular, no less than three surveys in the last five years have covered aspects of this. A National Survey of Working Children, conducted by the National Statistical Office with assistance from the ILO’s International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC), collected information from a large sample of workers aged 5 – 17 on their perceptions of their working conditions and occupational safety and health, and on their experiences of occupational accidents and diseases.[4] A Survey on Homeworkers in Metro Manila, also conducted by the National Statistical Office, provided information on work-related injuries and illnesses of that important group of informal sector workers.[5] Furthermore, a Survey on the Urban Informal Sector in Metro Manila, conducted by the National Statistical Office with ILO assistance, asked questions of both the owner-operators of informal sector enterprises and of workers in informal enterprises concerning occupational safety and health.[6] As a result of these surveys we can begin for the first time to piece together a more comprehensive picture of the problem. But the picture is tantalizingly contradictory. We will certainly have to continue to rely also on the results of small-scale fieldwork, at least to add depth to the information gathered through these larger surveys. The ILO is supporting follow-up research to these surveys, focusing on occupational safety and health and working conditions in the informal sector.
According to the Urban Informal Sector Survey in Metro Manila, the sectors with the highest (self-reported) incidence of work-related illnesses were agriculture, construction, transport, personal and household services, and trading. Informal sector workers in manufacturing were less likely to report work-related illness. However, most of the work-related accidents reported were in manufacturing, construction and transport. Most of the accidents in the transport sector were vehicular, but other sectors such as agriculture, food and beverage retailing and trading, were also prone to vehicular accidents. Construction accounted for most of the accidents due to falls. Fire or electric-related accidents were highest amongst informal sector workers in restaurants, followed by personal and household services and food and beverage retailing. Machine-related accidents tended to occur in manufacturing, repair services, other trade and construction.[7]
Amongst the 3.6 million working children in the Philippines, over half acknowledged that they were exposed to physical hazards in their work, especially temperature, humidity and noise, while a quarter recognized that they were exposed to chemical hazards, mostly dust and fumes. Nineteen per cent reported that they were exposed to biological hazards, principally bacteria and fungus. In all cases, the largest number of complaints came from children engaged in farming or retail trade, but these also accounted for the largest number of child workers. Children involved in farming were most concerned about flooding, access to clean water, and unsanitary conditions. Those in retail trade and non-food manufacturing were concerned, on the other hand, with inadequate working space, noise, poor ventilation and lighting.
It is important to note that work intensity, workload and stress are significant factors in assessing the hazards of children’s work. Ten per cent of working children said that they always performed heavy physical work, 10 per cent found their work stressful and 17 per cent came home exhausted.[8] ILO-sponsored research in the Philippines has helped in defining hazardous work for children, taking into account both work intensity and the level of safety of the tasks performed by children (working environment, materials and tools and equipment).[9]
Smaller-scale surveys have also provided useful information on the hazards faced by different groups of informal sector workers. A “snapshot study” of working conditions among informal sector operators in construction, automotive/machinery repair and metalwork noted prevalent problems of poor housekeeping, work postures and unsafe use of equipment, as well as inadequate ventilation and lighting.[10] Another small study carried out for the ILO’s Interdepartmental project on the Urban Informal Sector, amongst retaso (garment factory remnants) workers, found that heat was the most prevalent problem, followed by poor lighting, chemical hazards and ergonomic problems and fatigue.[11] In Africa, a pilot survey in Dar es Salaam found the following health complaints to be common amongst the informal sector workers surveyed: respiratory illnesses, backpain, joint and muscle pain, headaches, hernia and fungal infection of feet and hands. These complaints were associated with dust and solvents exposure, strenuous work, improper work posture and poor seats, long working hours with physical or mental stress, heavy lifting of loads including inadequate lifting postures, and wet work and working on damp surfaces without shoes.[12]
If the occupational safety and health problems of informal sector workers vary considerably, according particularly to their industry and occupation, they have common roots in problems of poverty, insecurity of land tenure, poor education, lack of institutional support, and weak organization.
Much of the informal sector is associated with urban poverty and slums. In a survey conducted in Bangkok, Thailand, 87 per cent of the city's slum dwellers were found to work in the informal sector. Basic services such as electricity and access to clean drinking water, and social infrastructure such as schools and hospitals, are often inaccessible to slum residents. Meagre incomes among urban informal sector workers limit opportunities to live and work in an hygienic and safe environment and this is exacerbated by housing insecurity. Since most informal operators also use their home as their workplace, better housing conditions brought about through greater security of housing tenure provide better working conditions while boosting productivity.[13]
2.CONSIDERATIONS IN DEVELOPING STRATEGIES
Priorities of informal sector operators and workers
While they may face acute problems of occupational safety and health, awareness of this is low amongst informal sector workers. Awareness of ways to improve their working conditions is even lower. The National Survey of Working Children in the Philippines found that some 17.6 per cent of young workers aged 5 to 17 considered some aspect of their work to be dangerous (boys were twice as likely as girls), with the risk of disease cited more frequently than accident risk. This was less than the number reporting that they had at some time suffered work-related injuries or illnesses. Adults are perhaps less willing to acknowledge problems: the Urban Informal Sector Survey in Metro Manila reported that only 1.8 percent had experienced work-related accidents. Most reported their working conditions as being good or fair, indicating that they are unaware of the hazards or accept them as an integral part of their working lives.[14]
The most pressing concerns of informal sector operators and workers are with their survival, and eventually with the growth of their businesses. Business concerns, especially access to finance, productivity, profitability, are seen as an extension of personal or family concerns, especially the family’s livelihood. Health is an important family concern, but the link with business concerns is generally not made. Ninety per cent of informal sector enterprises were not interested in learning about safety and health.[15] Approaches for improving occupational safety and health in the informal sector must first overcome this lack of interest.
Focus of approaches
Action to improve occupational safety and health in the informal sector can and should be multi-pronged. Legislation and enforcement relating to occupational safety and health and working conditions may have been largely irrelevant to informal sector workers in the past[16], but it is essential to apply, gradually, the protective measures specified in international labour standards and national laws and regulations. In view of the lack of interest by informal sector workers, as well as by governmental and non-governmental organizations in the occupational safety and health problems confronting informal sector workers, particular attention must be paid to awareness-raising. Efforts are also needed to produce technical guidance that is adapted to the situation, problems and needs of informal sector workers (or of particular groups of informal sector workers). This will in turn promote the effective use of action-oriented programmes, since these will necessarily depend on the informal sector operators and workers themselves being - and feeling - equipped to tackle their own problems. Strategies and solutions that depend heavily on external expertise will not lead to widespread improvement.
Institutional support
Strategies for improving occupational safety and health in the informal sector must give due regard to institutionalization. Few organizations in developing countries give priority to providing services or support for the informal sector: rather more, probably, are concerned with regulating or taxing the informal sector. As a starting point, therefore, the organizations whose mandates extend to the informal sector need to be encouraged to consider how their work could contribute to the goal of improving occupational safety and health.
At the level of national government, labour ministries, health ministries and ministries concerned with micro-enterprises (such as ministries for industry or agriculture) all potentially can play important roles. All, however, are subject to constraints. Labour ministries, which in most countries have the main responsibility within government for occupational safety and health, are not even able to carry out these functions adequately for larger, formal enterprises because of a shortage of human and other resources. Health ministries, with their work in community health, are usually much better placed than labour ministries to take action at the local level, but their work at the community level tends to focus on other health problems, and the issues concerning occupational safety and health are rarely addressed. Ministries for industry or agriculture may have extension workers providing services at the local level, but again the links between occupational safety and health and business concerns are all too rarely made. Local governments, for their part, have often been seen by informal sector operators as adversaries rather than a source of help, because of their regulatory and enforcement roles.
In the modern formal sector, employers’ and workers’ organizations have sometimes made important contributions to occupational safety and health, especially through education and awareness programmes for their members. These organizations generally do not have members in the informal sector and their efforts are therefore not directed there.[17] The organizations of informal sector operators, on the other hand, have not yet developed to the stage where they have been able to include occupational safety and health in their activities. There are, on the other hand, many NGOs working closely with the informal sector, mostly assisting in providing business development support or in more political objectives such as land tenure in urban slums. Occupational safety and health in the informal sector has not been on their agenda, despite the evident links with the issues with which they are concerned.
3.THE ILO AND NEW OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH STRATEGIES FOR THE INFORMAL SECTOR
In his report to the 78th International Labour Conference in 1991, the Director General of the ILO noted the dilemma presented by the informal sector. On the one hand, the sector provides jobs and income to millions of people in urban areas of developing countries, where formal jobs are not widely available. On the other hand, labour standards are not adhered to, while poor working conditions and child labour are common. The dilemma is this: should countries forego employment and income for the urban poor in the interest of labour-standard enforcement; or should they ignore poor working environments for the sake of jobs? The Director General’s report concluded that it is possible to improve working conditions gradually while improving productivity and income.[18]
Standards
Notwithstanding the difficulties inherent in implementation of standards in the informal sector, it is clear that the development of policies and the setting of standards, nationally as well as internationally, must play an important part in strategies for improving occupational safety and health and working conditions in the informal sector. In this regard, it is noteworthy that the International Labour Conference in 1996 adopted the Home Work Convention (No. 177), evidence of a new level of concern for these issues. The Convention calls on governments to include homeworkers in labour statistics and labour inspection systems. It states that national policy, while taking account of the special conditions of home work, should provide equality of treatment between homeworkers and other wage earners. Home workers should be able to establish and participate in organizations of their own choosing, be protected against discrimination, and be covered by national occupational safety and health regulations and social security provisions.
In the year 2000, the first discussion will be held at the International Labour Conference on possible new international labour standards concerning safety and health in agriculture.