Lucia Melnikov of AFFE (Association of Vendors of Special Fairs) reports that street vendors in Uruguay have been involved in a consultation on the extension of social security benefits to street vendors and taxation. Internal discussions have been held on the issue of the contribution of taxes through the Intersectoral Plenary of the Street Vendors of Uruguay (PIVCU). Melnikov says that AFFE was visited by represen-tatives of the workers of the Banco de Previsión Social.

The AFFE proposed consultation with the members of PIVCU and a day of information-sharing and debate to work towards a formula that will resolve the problem of social security.

Informal economy trade unions in other Latin American countries were asked to send reports on their exper-iences of taxation of the informal economy and autono-mous workers and inclusion by their governments into the social security system.

"We have resolved that on the question of Social Security, we are working towards developing a proposal for inclusion in a system where rights and obligations of independent workers are set out in legislation", Melnikov said. "As we are managers of our work we demand solutions from and also offer solutions to the different agencies of the state." (Source:e-mail correspondence from AFFE 15th October 2005).

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