Informal economy

‘Preuves’: portraits of undocumented workers seeking regularisation in France

There are between 400,000 and 600,000 undocumented migrants in France. Most of them work. Through this photo report, these men and women share their daily realities.Read the full article

A new era of opportunity is opening up in Iraq with the development of the private sector and the creation of start-ups

13 October 2023

A new era of opportunity is opening up in Iraq with the development of the private sector and the creation of start-ups

Iraq’s private sector has suffered greatly from years of armed conflict. Today, the country’s entrepreneurial landscape is comprised of a mosaic of small and medium-sized enterprises that contribute, to a greater or lesser extent, to the country’s economic [...]Read the full article

The world is failing to meet SDG 8: how to achieve decent work for all by 2030?

6 October 2023

The world is failing to meet SDG 8: how to achieve decent work for all by 2030?

Giulia Massobrio: “Since 2018, the ITUC has been calling for a new social contract in line with SDG 8. This contract includes six demands that are crucial to achieving truly sustainable development: from rights-based and climate-friendly jobs to wage justice and greater democracy in global [...]Read the full article

How do we create a future of work that centres on the wellbeing of people?

24 July 2023

How do we create a future of work that centres on the wellbeing of people?

In an environment of accelerating automation and digitalisation, will lifelong learning be the key to staying in our chosen job or profession? How should we address the challenge of informal work? What will happen to jobs impacted by the climate crisis? And what role will trade unions play in [...]Read the full article

Undocumented Black migrant workers are caught in a vicious cycle of racism in North Africa

19 June 2023

Undocumented Black migrant workers are caught in a vicious cycle of racism in North Africa

Sub-Saharan African workers in Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco face discrimination, exploitation and violent evictions.Read the full article

The Democratic Republic of Congo is searching for solutions to its health and social security shortcomings

22 May 2023

The Democratic Republic of Congo is searching for solutions to its health and social security shortcomings

Despite the sheer scale of the informal economy hindering the financing of social protection, pragmatic solutions are being sought to ensure some kind of health cover for workers in the Democratic Republic of Congo.Read the full article

Following a six-year battle, street vendors in the Indian state of Meghalaya have secured new legal rights

3 April 2023

Following a six-year battle, street vendors in the Indian state of Meghalaya have secured new legal rights

Hawkers in the state of Meghalaya in north-east India have been successful in ensuring that an unfavourable state law is repealed and a more progressive national law is adopted.Read the full article

Considered neither refugees nor economic migrants, Burmese workers in Thailand eke out a living in the shadows

24 March 2023

Considered neither refugees nor economic migrants, Burmese workers in Thailand eke out a living in the shadows

After 2011, Myanmar engaged in a semi-controlled path to democracy and many Burmese migrant workers returned home to set up businesses, thanks to the skills and capital they acquired while working abroad. But the recent coup has disrupted this [...]Read the full article

The social and trade union movement wants to break the cycle of crises and interference in Haiti

16 February 2023

The social and trade union movement wants to break the cycle of crises and interference in Haiti

Frédéric Thomas: The CTH (Haitian Workers’ Confederation) and the CTSP (Public and Private Sector Workers’ Confederation) reassert their firm anchorage in the Haitian social movement and their commitment to promoting a ‘transition of rupture’, with the support of an international solidarity [...]Read the full article

With workers locked-in to a future of continuing education, who will pay the bill?

12 January 2023

With workers locked-in to a future of continuing education, who will pay the bill?

Marga Zambrana: Experts and international organisations warn that only those who are able to quickly adapt to change through lifelong learning will survive.Read the full article

Tackling youth unemployment – and stemming the brain drain – is an urgent task for the Arab world

18 November 2022

Tackling youth unemployment – and stemming the brain drain – is an urgent task for the Arab world

Economic and political conditions, combined with the effects of the pandemic, are placing the labour market out of reach for millions of young people in the Arab world.Read the full article

26 October 2022

In Brazil, workers’ rights have been continuously eroded since the 2017 labour code reform

For the past five years, workers in Latin America’s largest country have faced job insecurity, rising unemployment and weakened trade unions.Read the full article

Faced with the difficulty of organising in the informal sector, trade unions in the Democratic Republic of Congo are taking a step-by-step approach

31 August 2022

Faced with the difficulty of organising in the informal sector, trade unions in the Democratic Republic of Congo are taking a step-by-step approach

Administrative abuses, intimidation, economic insecurity – protecting workers in the informal economy is no easy task and many are often forced to rely on themselves when difficulties arise. The Trade Union Confederation of Congo (CSC) is choosing its battles carefully and doing its best to [...]Read the full article

Working mothers in Bolivia: when motherhood collides with care work policies

29 July 2022

Working mothers in Bolivia: when motherhood collides with care work policies

While workplace childcare policies are relatively new in Bolivia, the country is making progress, for example by promoting breastfeeding rooms and day-care facilities. However, such policies are of little use when employers fail to respect labour [...]Read the full article

28 June 2022

We need a new social contract to rebuild workers’ trust and lives

Sharan Burrow: The 2022 ITUC Global Rights Index reveals a dire situation for working people across the world. We must reverse this trend.Read the full article

19 May 2022

Human rights

Our leaders need to stop repeating the myth that refugees are an economic burden

Sunit Bagree: The notion that refugees are an economic drain on countries that provide them with sanctuary is simply false.Read the full article

12 May 2022

What labour and trade union agenda should the new Colombian government and Congress pursue? Here are some proposals

Carlos Julio Díaz Lotero: A key task for those elected is to rethink the development model that has been pursued for over 30 years, with appalling results. If we succeed in turning trade union proposals into public policy, the principles of ever more decent work will become a [...]Read the full article

11 April 2022

In Cambodia, informal construction workers are still reaching for the labour rights won by garment workers

“During Covid, the government provided support for the formal sector, but the informal sector had nothing: construction, brick kilns, nothing. This is inhumane.”Read the full article

6 April 2022

Environment

Staunching the plastics tide

Waste pickers call for their voices to be heard in negotiations for a global treaty on plastics that some compare to the Paris climate agreement.Read the full article

The Harare barbecue chefs shattering patriarchal food traditions

30 March 2022

Culture

The Harare barbecue chefs shattering patriarchal food traditions

Mereki’s female chefs not only defeat the pervasive, sexist norms present in the world of barbecues, but crucially, they earn enough money to head households on an equal financial footing with men.Read the full article

“We are not the ones who owe; it's capital and the state who owe us”: why feminists scholars and activists are working to destigmatise debt

11 March 2022

“We are not the ones who owe; it’s capital and the state who owe us”: why feminists scholars and activists are working to destigmatise debt

“We want to be alive, free and without debt.” With slogans such as these, Argentinian feminists are attempting to expose the connection between debt, global finance, labour exploitation and male violence.Read the full article

8 March 2022

Human rights

The women’s movement and informal vendors: “Nothing for us without us!”

Angélique Katani Kipulu: Every day we can see them in the markets and on the streets making a living without decent working conditions. These women are the backbone of our economy and our communities, but they remain invisible, marginalised and often [...]Read the full article

Decent work in Burkina Faso is a work in progress, but more vital than ever after the coup

28 January 2022

Decent work in Burkina Faso is a work in progress, but more vital than ever after the coup

Although the concept of ’decent work’ is gaining ground, the recent coup d’état and military takeover, in addition to ongoing insecurity in the country, magnified by chronic food crises linked to climate change, will not facilitate the task at [...]Read the full article

COSATU spokesperson, Sizwe Pamla: “With decent work, everyone – workers, employers and the economy – can emerge as winners”

10 January 2022

COSATU spokesperson, Sizwe Pamla: “With decent work, everyone – workers, employers and the economy – can emerge as winners”

“Decent work is the only sustainable way to accelerate the growth of production and employment, to increase the pace of poverty reduction, and to build genuine democracy and social cohesion in South Africa.”Read the full article

2 December 2021

The Covid care crisis: how to reach the most vulnerable women

Rachel Moussié : “Understanding how some workers face overlapping systems of discrimination will be key to finding effective Covid-19 response measures.”Read the full article

In Italy, the institutionalised exploitation of migrant care workers has been exacerbated by the pandemic

3 September 2021

In Italy, the institutionalised exploitation of migrant care workers has been exacerbated by the pandemic

The pandemic has highlighted the crucial social role played by migrant domestic workers in Italy, yet the state continues to discriminate against them and to deprive them of adequate protection. The plight of those working without papers – the majority – is even [...]Read the full article

After fleeing violence in Afghanistan, carpet weaving provides refugee women with a meagre but vital lifeline in Pakistan

30 June 2021

Culture

After fleeing violence in Afghanistan, carpet weaving provides refugee women with a meagre but vital lifeline in Pakistan

Pakistan has one of the largest refugee populations in the world, and for decades, carpet weaving has been one of the few options available to Afghan women refugees who want to work.Read the full article

28 May 2021

Environment

Brazil’s new gold rush

Gold prices have risen steadily over the past two years, reaching an all-time high in mid-2020. In the Brazilian Amazon, men come to seek their fortunes on forest land that the federal government should protect, but which, more and more, is succumbing to the pressures of [...]Read the full article

Colombia: from the failure of the elites to the hopeful rebellion of the young

20 May 2021

Colombia: from the failure of the elites to the hopeful rebellion of the young

Carlos Julio Díaz Lotero: “Our country’s elites have failed to construct a national project, a project of society. In face of this failure, the impoverished majority, and in particular the young, have come forward with their own proposals to build the new social contract that Colombia needs [...]Read the full article

On the road with Côte d'Ivoire's cocoa beans

31 March 2021

On the road with Côte d’Ivoire’s cocoa beans

European chocolate makers will make a significant portion of their annual turnover around Easter time thanks in part to cocoa from Côte d’Ivoire, the world’s leading producer. But this ‘brown gold’ is the product of an environmentally destructive industry with precarious working [...]Read the full article

After Tazreen Fashions and Rana Plaza, Covid-19 once again exposes the human cost of fast fashion

26 February 2021

After Tazreen Fashions and Rana Plaza, Covid-19 once again exposes the human cost of fast fashion

Many Bangladeshi workers are more afraid of dying of hunger than they are of dying from Covid-19.Read the full article

The young creative bringing India's rural folk musicians to the world – via a backpack

8 January 2021

Culture

The young creative bringing India’s rural folk musicians to the world – via a backpack

A 28-year-old social entrepreneur has created an innovative solution to help rural folk artists in India create sustainable livelihoods and preserve the country’s richest oral heritage.Read the full article

#2020InReview: How Covid changed the world of work

21 December 2020

#2020InReview: How Covid changed the world of work

Reporting from the frontline of the coronavirus pandemic.Read the full article

27 November 2020

Caught between military occupation and unemployment, Palestinians continue to work in the Israeli economy without full labour rights

“The Palestinian labour market continues to present a grim picture. Unemployment is rampant and protection is failing. Stifled by occupation, it can meet neither the needs nor the aspirations of the Palestinian people.”Read the full article

Alisa Trojansky: “It's time to formalise the care sector and stop the privatisation trend”

29 October 2020