Organising informal sector workers one of the biggest challenges facing the trade union movement

Kwasi Adu -Amankwah, Ghana TUC Secretary General opening address to the first African Regional Workshop

StreetNet is the second international network of workers in the so-called informal sector. It represents an important initiative for bringing to the attention of the world from direct experience, the conditions of a sizable group of workers across many countries who are involved in the hazardous job of earning a living on the streets and in the markets.

Those who are intimately involved with labour relations and the conditions of workers cannot fail to recognise the importance of the informal economy in economic and social policy development.

The ILO estimated that in 1995, 40% of urban employment in Latin America was informal. The figure for Asia was 55% while in Africa a staggering 70% of urban employment was informal. The true percentages are probably higher.

In Ghana, over the last decade and more, the formal sector has shrunk as a result of massive retrenchment of labour in the public sector. On the other hand, the private formal sector has not been able to grow to absorb the huge numbers retrenched or those who enter the labour market annually from school. In a situation where there is no unemployment insurance or other safety net for the jobless, unemployed workers have been compelled to eke a living out of the informal economy. A little over 80% of Ghana’s labour force is located in the informal sector.

One of the most striking features of workers in the informal sector is the fact that they are unprotected. They are susceptible to ill-health through overwork and poor working conditions, including poor sanitation, undue exposure to the sun and rains. Informal sector workers also lack income and social security protection. Besides they face difficulties with credit, marketing and storage facilities. Street vendors in particular have difficulties with their market location and storage facilities as well as constant threats of harassment from municipal authorities.

As indicated above, attention to the informal sector has continued to grow in the last few years. On the part of the trade union movement we are beginning to pay closer attention to organising informal sector workers into the ranks of the movement to ensure their protection. Indeed, organising informal sector workers and strengthening them to transform their conditions of work and thereby the very nature of informal sector work, constitutes one of the biggest challenges that confront the trade union movement at the beginning of a new century.

(The address has been edited)