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The world’s garbage workers are on the frontlines of the pandemic, and their work has become increasingly risky as they keep cities clean. For informal waste pickers, these challenges are even greater. They often operate without protective equipment and sort through materials by hand as they recover...
Workers at the bottom of the garment supply chain — subcontracted homeworkers, mostly women, who stitch from homes for some of the leading brands, often for pennies — are the most vulnerable and easily forgotten workers. In this COVID-19 crisis, they have been devastated by a lack of wages and lost...
The health crisis and related lockdowns have made accessing food a challenge for many. While grocery store workers have been deemed essential workers in many places, research shows the poorest and most vulnerable communities often rely on informal food systems for food. In this interview, WIEGO's...
Our last blog highlighted three essential informal workers striving to keep their communities fed, informed and clean during the COVID-19 crisis – without proper protective equipment or pay. This blog details workers’ demands that city governments provide them the support they need now, as one step...
Although many informal workers are now considered to be “essential workers,” that was not always the case. Before the crisis, ongoing harassment by authorities, vilification in the media, and discrimination from the general public was commonplace. However, the economic and public health emergency...
The double tsunami of the pandemic and lockdown in India will continue to have devastating impacts on the health and livelihoods of the poor, and the government relief package has gaps that informal worker organizations say must be filled.
Grim reports of overwhelmed health systems from here and other parts of Europe, as well as North America, have dominated COVID-19 coverage in much of the world’s influential news media. But the focus has begun to shift to an equally devastating story from the Global South. That story is one of...
Social distancing and staying home are real possibilities for middle-class office workers covered by social security. They are much less achievable for unprotected informal workers who fall between the cracks, excluded from formal work-related protections as well as from state social assistance...
Few public investments will have as transformative an impact on present and future generations, and on equality between women and men and across social classes, as the investment in childcare. In a new policy brief series, the International Labour Organization (ILO) and WIEGO reveal why childcare...
We’ve all seen the pictures: heaping trash mounds with men and women sifting through the discards. This challenging situation has increased international pressure over environmental and public health concerns from these dangerous sites. Open dumps, unlike sanitary landfills, are not engineered to...
Videos / Slideshows / Audio
Millions of women work long hours, in dangerous conditions, for little pay. They are fighting for change, with the help of ILO Convention 189 on Decent Work for Domestic Workers. Watch this video to learn how.
Workers Education/Organizing Materials
This manual helps street vendors learn more about the regulations that govern public space and how to defend the right to work in public space. It describes successful actions taken by street vendor organizations. And it offers information to help you organize and negotiate with local government.
WIEGO Working Papers
Mike Rogan reviews how informal workers are taxed, why there is growing interest in taxing them, and whether they should be included in the tax net.