Symposium: Labor Informality in Comparative Perspective

University Town, Penn State University, USA

The Symposium “Labor Informality in Comparative Perspective: Toward a More Just Future for Workers to be hosted by the Center for Global Workers’ Rights” took place on April 19th and 20th at the Penn State University, United States.

WIEGO’s waste specialist Sonia Dias was one of the speakers, delivering the presentation entitled “Challenging Invisibility – Waste pickers organizing in Brazil”. This was the 7th Annual Symposium organized by the Center for Global Workers’ Rights (CGWR).

The CGWR was established in 2012 as a research center within the School of Labor and Employment Relations at Penn State. It has a particular focus on vulnerable workers in precarious sectors of the global economy. It publishes research reports, funds student projects on workers’ rights, organizes scholar-practitioner exchanges, sponsors an annual postdoctoral scholar, and co-hosts the Global Labour Journal. It is also home to the Labour Rights Indicators, a comprehensive global database on workers’ rights. The Center works in close association with the Penn State MPS program in Labor and Global Workers’ Rights as part of the Global Labour University network.

More Information

Read the full report, Cooperation among workers in the informal economy: A focus on home-based workers and waste pickers

Read the summary with the main findings of the ILO-WIEGO study Cooperation among workers in the informal economy

See the presentation by Sonia Maria Dias and Lucia Fernandez, Formalization from the Ground – creating jobs within urban solid waste systems: the case of waste pickers´cooperatives

Read the WIEGO Policy Brief (Urban Policies) No. 3: Recycling in Belo Horizonte, Brazil – An Overview of Inclusive Programming

Read WIEGO Policy Brief (Urban Policies) No. 5: The Municipal Waste and Citizenship Forum: A Platform for Social Inclusion and Participation

Read WIEGO Policy Brief (Urban Policies) No. 6: Overview of the Legal Framework for Inclusion of Informal Recyclers in Solid Waste Management in Brazil

ARB: Fighting for an Inclusive Model for Recycling in Bogota (Case Study)

summary  | download publication

Waste Pickers and Carbon Finance: Issues to Consider – This Technical Brief clarifies the requirements for carbon finance mechanisms to provide an assessment of whether informal waste picker membership-based organizations (MBOs) in the global South can reasonably meet these requirements and the potential investments needed to successfully secure carbon financing.

summary  |  download publication

Paying Waste Pickers for Environmental Services: A Critical Examination of Options Proposed in Brazil – summary  |  download publication

español: Remuneración a los recicladores por servicios ambientales: un examen crítico – resumen  |  descargar publicacione