2 - Yaneth: A formal domestic worker

Transcription

1 Handout 1: Profiles This handout introduces some of the profiles of workers and economic units that you would likely find in the informal economy. These are situations you might be familiar with. Please go through the various profiles. 1. Val: an informal domestic worker in Brazil 2. Yaneth: a formal domestic worker in Uruguay 3. Javier: a street vendor in Colombia 4. Milagros: a woman entrepreneur and owner of a small grocery in Ecuador

2 5. Marcelo: an undeclared worker in Argentina 6. Maria Cristina: a worker in a private security company in México 7. Clara: working as free-lance in Peru 8. Rafael: the owner of a restaurant in the Dominican Republic 9. Aníbal: an entrepreneur hiring five workers in Guatemala 10. Gustavo: a public teacher in Costa Rica 11. Verónica: a nurse in public hospital in Chile 1 - Val: an informal domestic worker in Brazil Born in the North of the country in a family of poor rural workers with no schooling, Val started as working as a domestic worker in Bahia at the age of 17. At work, Val has been discriminated and exploited. Her working hours ranged from hours per day. During the first years, Val was often not paid. "I only started to receive a real salary when I was 21," she told. "Until that age, my payment was often in used clothes and food. She is now paid monthly, at a rate, below the national minimum wage. Holidays are not recognized, and she does not receive overtime pay. She works even when she is sick because she doesn t want to lose the job, and needs that income to support her mother's medical treatment. She has never had a contract. Her tasks are explained to her verbally and she seems to be fine this way. She doesn't know that domestic workers in her country are protected within the regulatory framework of labour law and are entitled to formal registration of contracts, provision for minimum wages, voluntary pensions and unemployment benefits (C189 1 ). Val does not enjoy any of these basic workers rights. But Val s life could change soon because she heard on the radio about organisations of domestic workers fighting for their rights. 2 - Yaneth: A formal domestic worker C189 - Domestic Workers Convention, 2011 (No. 189) - Convention concerning decent work for domestic workers

3 Yaneth, 38 years old, is a domestic worker at the service of a wealthy family in Montevideo. She comes from the North West of Uruguay, one of the poorest rural areas of the country, where she left her little daughter. To her employers Yaneth is precious: she cooks, does shopping, cleans but above all she takes care of their son, a teenager, like a mother. She lives with the family, in the capital city, in a small room located in the house s dependence. Being a well-known lawyer, Yaneth s employer registered her employment status giving her the possibility to be entitled to health insurance this when the law regulating the domestic work sector was adopted-. In April 2012, Uruguay became the first country to ratify ILO Convention 189, the landmark treaty guaranteeing domestic workers get the same core labour protections as other workers. After that, she received training by the Union of Domestic Workers (SUTD) about the obligations of her employers and her workers rights and is supported by that organisation anytime she needs. 3 - Javier: A street vendor in Colombia Javier, 24 year old, sells raspados (a sort of ice cream made with grated ice) in Cartagena, a very touristic city placed in the Caribbean coast of Colombia. Due to its rising commercial vocation, Cartagena became the destination of many migrant workers coming from inland areas, as Javier. Since his arrival, four years ago, Javier has been working as street vendor in the colonial area of the city, very popular for tourists as well as local population. Javier is satisfied with his business. He has a lot of flexibility in term of working time: he can freely decide when to work or not and for how long. He also likes very much the possibility to decide whatever about his job and his life without any imposition. Furthermore, all he earns is for him! By contrast, Javier has sometimes to face with public authorities harassment against informal street vendors.

4 He must also hope to be always healthy and fit to be able to face the day-to-day work. Living in informality, he can t count on social security or pension. As his business is invisible, he has no voice and rights. He can t also have access to potential public benefit/incentives targeted to self-employed. Hi business is not formally registered and it does not contribute to the measurement of national statistics (i.e. productivity rate, employment, etc.). The Colombian rebusque ( rummage ) More than 30% of Colombian people survive with the so call rebusque, a creative (an informal) way to daily subsist. +&sc=0-0&sp=-1&sk=#view=detail&mid=37620e8a5e6a48b9b4f337620e8a5e6a48b9b4f3 4 - Milagros - A woman entrepreneur and owner of a small grocery in Ecuador Milagros is 40 years old widow. She raises one 8 year-old boy on her own and they live in the rural area of Quito. She earns some of her income by operating a small grocery in front of her house. She grows vegetables and raises poultry to sell their products (vegetables, eggs, etc.) and earn about USD 600 per year. She wants to expand her business but she has no collateral because of property, family and inheritance laws and practices. She also does not feel comfortable to approach banks. Even if she gets loans from the banks, she has to struggle with high interest rates. The prevailing lack of social protection and control over assets reduces her possibility to become entrepreneur, engage in higher risk and higher return activities or develop her capability and protect her health. She also has to increase her skills if she wants to grow her business. 5 - Marcelo: an undeclared worker in Argentina

5 Marcelo is 27 years old; he is educated and has just been employed by an international firm exporting textiles. Although he has done many internships and part time jobs, employers consider that he does not have enough work experience to access a fixed-term job. Instead he is offered short term contract, undeclared job with the promise that his case will be revised after a certain period. He is treated as all the other employees but does not have a proper contract with his employer and is not covered by any formal social protection scheme. Marcelo knows that he is not covered by formal arrangements and that his employer is transgressing the law and can face sanctions but he has no other job alternative. 6 - Maria Cristina: a worker in a private security company in México Maria Cristina is 43 years old private security guard. She has worked as a guard for the past ten years. Whilst it might be assumed that the Mexican private security sector is an arena reserved for men, there are in fact women guards across the sector. From hotels to industrial estates women are on duty, juggling family life and night shifts. She has in the past been faced with the risk of being sacked at a moment s notice as there were no contractual agreements with the employer. Much frustrations and humiliations come with her job that many regard as stigmatised. She works for twelve or more hours, with night shifts with no breaks; securing maternity leave has been a challenge as she would be fired for being pregnant or told she can t have a single day off after giving birth. She was under-paid and at times unpaid for some months. Her employer didn t provide any form of insurance cover not even a medical health cover. She has most recently joined the Mexican Trade Union (Unión Nacional de Trabajadores - UNT) where she notes that things have changed. Now she count on a formal contract, she can get up to three months maternity leave and realising that she cannot longer be sacked by her employer, motivates her to work even harder. 7 - Clara: working as free-lance in Peru

6 Clara was born in Lima 34 year ago. She has been working as a free-lance Architect since her graduation, 10 years ago. As self-employed worker, she is registered at the College of Architects of Peru (CAP) with which she can practice in any field of planning, design, planning and construction, supervision, consulting, and others. She pays a private social security system to cover all her health needs and adheres to a private pension scheme. At the same time, she respects the fiscal requirements imposed by national laws. Her professional life has been following the development of the Peruvian socio-economic situation: during economic downturns, Clara had to face a heavy reduction of her clients and commitments. In these phases, she has been often required to reduce her fees to maintain her customers having a significant reduction of her income. Sometimes she had to work under informal conditions to preserve her standard of living while the hard period is overcome. 8 Rafael: the owner of a restaurant in the Dominican Republic Rafael is 35 years old and is the owner of a little restaurant located in Punta Cana, a very popular tourist destination since the 1970s. He employs a family member, but during peak times, he hires other seasonal workers to fulfil the needs. Working hours are often long and working conditions are poor: in particular, the kitchen of the restaurant is badly lit, not very well equipped and with not enough ventilation. Sometimes the value of food is low due to scarce row materials and his clients often reject dishes because of poor quality. Rafael has considered the formal recruitment of workers registering them, but after spending a day going to different local agencies, he was daunted by the amount of documents to fill out, the costs of registering, and the number of different institutions that he needs to get permits and certifications from, dealing in particular with food. He is also afraid that local authorities can shut down his

7 eating place because of poor working conditions. He wants to totally legalize his activity and improve the situation of his workers and at the same time his business, but he is worried because of the impact of costs implied from taxes on his business and social security. Rafael is member of a small business association but does not have time to attend meeting to better understand how he can get support from them. 9 - Aníbal: An entrepreneur hiring five workers in Guatemala Anibal owns a small chemical business in Guatemala City. He hires five workers on a regular basis and as productivity rises, he is thinking of expanding his operations, and hires more labour. He has just obtained a loan from the country first investment bank that is specialised on enhancing the productivity of growth oriented businesses. He also gets support from a local business association registered as an employer organisation. This could take place because Anibal decided to face the challenge to grow through a process of formalizing its activity otherwise he would not have access to loans from local institutions and banks. He has registered all his employees who get full labour benefits. This comes as a cost but brings also benefits: he thinks that the security and wellbeing of his employees has contributed to a higher productivity for his business, despite the frequent unfair competition and fraudulent behaviours of some competitors. Being formal, he also can benefit from public employment services in the identification and recruitment of workers with adequate abilities, and required education and training. He also pays taxes regularly under simplified procedures recently introduced by the Government. With his business association, he has initiated dialogue with the public authorities for enabling business environment for enterprises like his own to grow and for the government to take drastic measures against some enterprise that employ informal workers and boost their productivity. Formalising his business makes him value more his workers skills, so he is planning to finance training and capacity development to his employees. This (formalising) has also allowed him to be eligible for public innovation grants. Without this innovation in technology and human resources, the enterprise will not be able to ensure the high-level of quality currently required by the international competition. More security and less crime, greater economies of scale, lower infrastructure costs (for instance electricity, extremely high in Guatemala) could provide a more enabling economic environment for business development Gustavo: a public teacher in Costa Rica

8 Gustavo is 45 and has been a teacher in a public elementary school for 15 years now with a regular contract and decent working conditions and public benefits (easier access to public services for public servants). Gustavo and his family have health insurance and his pension would allow him to live in a decent way after he retired. But his monthly salary is just enough for regular expenses; any unexpected expenditure can represent a serious issue for Gustavo s family. The Teachers trade union to which he belongs is very strong and has engaged negotiations with the Government for improving hi sector workers rights and benefits. Gustavo feels protected as a public worker and sees the value of the work its workers organisation does. The income he earns is not always sufficient to support his family and children education, more demanding at university level. When opportunities arise he often does other informal jobs, like private lessons or minor home repairs or painter, to secure a better income Verónica: a nurse in public hospital in Chile Verónica moved from Puerto Mont (in the south of Chile) to Calama, a small mining city in Antofagasta region (near the Atacama Desert, the driest desert in the world) in northern part of the country. She has been appointed as paediatric nurse in the local public hospital two years ago. She decided to move far away from his family (more than 2,500 km) because of the protected working conditions and benefits (extrahours paid, child care infrastructures, etc.) offered to public servants. Due to her mother s health problems, Verónica has to travel to Puerto Mont twice per month. She can't cover all travel expenses with her salary. In order to earn more, she proposes private nurse services in Calamba during night and/or weekends without a formal contract. Regrettably, this modality is much demanded because it offers people the possibility to get cheapest services and provides Verónica with more time-flexibility and a quick gain, but

9 at the same time- it does not offer any guarantee in terms of working conditions and rights both from employees' than from employers point of view. 1 An informal domestic worker in Brazil Val 2 A formal domestic worker in Uruguay Yaneth 3 A street vendor in Colombia Javier 4 A woman entrepreneur and owner of a small grocery in Ecuador Milagros 5 Marcelo An undeclared worker in Argentina 6 Maria Cristina A worker in a private security company in México 7 Clara Working as free-lance in Peru 8 The owner of a restaurant in the Dominican Republic Rafael 9 Aníbal An entrepreneur hiring five workers in Guatemala 10 Gustavo A public teacher in Costa Rica

10 11 A nurse in public hospital in Chile Verónica