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Challenges in organizing the informal workforce can be specific to the sector or local context, but the challenges in this overview are similar across all sectors and regions of the world.
Recent Gains Domestic workers have made great strides in organizing globally in recent years. A growing movement led to the formation of the International Domestic Workers’ Network (IDWN) in 2009, which campaigned for an international instrument that would recognize domestic workers and their rights...
History was made on June 16, 2011 when governments, employers and workers from around the world adopted the Convention (C189) and accompanying Recommendation on Decent Work for Domestic Workers at the International Labour Conference (ILC). This was a leap forward for an estimated 50–100 million...
Without strong organizations, home-based workers cannot access information about employment opportunities, workers' rights, changing demands, new designs and techniques, or other information that would allow them to escape the pattern of very low and irregular earnings. Isolation, invisibility and...
On 20 June 1996, homeworkers around the world scored a big win when the International Labour Conference (ILC) adopted the Home Work Convention. This Convention (C177) aims to promote and protect the rights of those who work at home creating products for an employer. But 20 years on, too few...
Waste pickers are increasingly motivated to organize and fight for recognition and a place within formal waste management systems. They are forming cooperatives, associations, unions, movements and networks. The extent and depth to which waste pickers have organized varies across countries and...
WIEGO works with four main occupational groups of informal workers: domestic workers, home-based workers, street vendors and waste pickers. Workers in each occupational group face unique legal challenges. This page outlines some progressive legal developments that respond to the needs of these...
EDPs allow researchers, practitioners and officials to experience firsthand the challenges that workers in informal employment face. The EDPs focused on law aim to foster an understanding of how laws and regulatory frameworks shape and constrain informal workers’ livelihoods, and how the law might...
Millions of workers across the globe cannot access social benefits such as retirement funds, maternity benefits, health services, occupational health and safety, and child care. In the industrialized North, many governments and employers have been withdrawing from welfare provision, pushing...
December 12 is Universal Health Coverage Day. But what does UHC mean for the majority of the world's workers who are informally employed — and how can policymakers ensure UHC reaches them?
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.