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Chapter 3: International Efforts in

Unorganised Sector

Introduction

The condition of labour in the unorganised sector, often termed the informal economy in
international discourse, has become a matter of global concern over the past several
decades. The unorganised sector is generally characterized by small or unregistered
152 enterprises, casual employment arrangements, and a lack of social security or legal
4 protection for workers. Informal workers typically do not have secure contracts,
workplace benefits, or collective bargaining power, leaving them vulnerable to
12 exploitation and poverty1. Reflecting these decent work deficits, the International Labour
26 Organization (ILO) observes that informal economies are marked by a high incidence of
poverty and the absence of fundamental labour rights protections2.

In sheer magnitude, informal employment constitutes the majority of the workforce in

the world. ILO data indicate that as of the late 2010s, approximately 2 billion people,
1 more than 60% of all workers globally, are engaged in informal employment, the bulk of
2 them in developing countries3. In regions like sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, the
share of informal employment can range from two-thirds to over 80% of the labour force,

5 1
International Labour Organization, 17th International Conference of Labour Statisticians (2003) –
166 Guidelines concerning a statistical definition of informal employment, para. 20 (defining informal workers
as those who “do not have secure employment contracts, workers’ benefits, social protection or workers’
representation”).
92 2
International Labour Organization, “Informal economy” (ILO Topics Portal)
<[Link]/global/topics/employment-promotion/informal-economy> (accessed 1 June 2025) (noting
26 informal economies are typically characterized by high poverty incidence and severe decent work deficits).
3
International Labour Office, Women and Men in the Informal Economy: A Statistical Picture, 3rd ed.
(Geneva: ILO, 2018) 13 (reporting that 2 billion workers – representing about 61% of the world’s
employed population – were in informal employment).

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whereas even in advanced economies a significant minority works informally4. The ILO
reports that over six in ten workers worldwide, and four out of five enterprises, operate
outside the formal regulatory framework5. Far from diminishing with economic growth,
the informal sector has persisted and even expanded in many countries, confounding
early predictions that development and industrialisation would absorb informal labour
into the formal sector6. Instead, informal labour remains a structural feature of the global
economy, intricately linked with issues of economic inequality, gender disparities, and
6 migration. Women, migrants, and other vulnerable groups are often over-represented in
informal work, enduring low incomes, unsafe conditions, and exclusion from social
protection7.

The international community's concern over unorganised labour stems not only from
humanitarian and rights-based motives but also from the broader economic and social
implications. Widespread informality is associated with lower productivity, tax losses,
and unfair competition, which can hinder sustainable development. Moreover, chronic
11
1 informality undermines the realization of “decent work for all,” a goal embraced in the
United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and fundamental ILO
declarations. Recognising these stakes, global efforts have intensified to extend legal and
1 social protections to informal workers and to facilitate the transition of the informal
17 economy into the formal realm. Over time, a corpus of international labour standards,
conventions, treaties, and recommendations, has evolved to address conditions in

4
International Labour Organization, “More than 60 per cent of the world’s employed population are in the
informal economy” (ILO Press Release, 30 April 2018) (providing regional estimates: e.g. 85.8% of
39 employment in Africa, 68.2% in Asia-Pacific, 40.0% in the Americas, and 25.1% in Europe and Central
Asia is informal).
5
ILO, “Informal economy” (ILO Topics Portal), supra note 2 (observing that over 60% of workers and
127 80% of enterprises globally operate in the informal economy).
6
ILO, “Informal economy” (ILO Topics Portal), supra note 2 (stating that contrary to earlier predictions
69 informality has not diminished over time and is even increasing in many countries).
20 7
ILO, “Informal economy” (ILO Topics Portal), supra note 2 (noting that the majority of women workers
62 in developing countries are in the informal economy and that informal workers’ lack of social protection
is a key aspect of their social exclusion).

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unorganised labour, alongside new institutions and programmes dedicated to this

challenge.

147 This chapter examines the evolution and effectiveness of international legal efforts
concerning the unorganised sector. It begins by tracing the historical development of
142 international attention to informal labour, highlighting how the issue moved from the
periphery to the centre of global labour policy. It then analyzes key international
instruments, notably ILO conventions and United Nations covenants, that establish
norms relevant to informal workers. Next, major institutional mechanisms and global
programmes targeting the informal workforce are discussed, including the role of the
141 ILO, the UN, and initiatives by regional bodies such as the European Union. The chapter
also explores pertinent legal frameworks and jurisprudence, reviewing how international
standards have influenced national laws and court decisions with regard to informal
workers’ rights. A brief comparative discussion follows, juxtaposing India’s approach to
unorganised labour with global practices and highlighting areas of convergence or
divergence. Finally, the chapter assesses the overall effectiveness of these international
efforts and identifies continuing gaps, offering a critical evaluation of progress to date.

Evolution and Internationalization of the Informal

Labour Issue

1 During the early decades of the ILO and the United Nations, the plight of informal or
“unorganised” workers received relatively scant attention in international law. In the
1950s and 1960s, conventional development theory presumed that traditional and small-
1 scale economic activities would gradually be absorbed into the modern sector as
economies grew8. Under this assumption, the unorganised workforce was seen as a
transient phenomenon of underdevelopment that would wither away with
industrialisation. By the late 1960s, however, it became clear that this assumption was

2 8
Martha Alter Chen, The Informal Economy: Definitions, Theories and Policies, WIEGO Working Paper
No. 1 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, 2012) 3–5 (describing the 1950s–60s development theory
31 assumption that traditional “informal” activities would be absorbed into the modern economy with
growth).

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failing, many developing countries were experiencing persistent unemployment and a

“traditional” sector that was not shrinking as expected9. Responding to these concerns,
3 the ILO launched a series of exploratory missions to different countries to investigate the
nature of the employment challenge in each and what could be done in response.

1 A pivotal moment came in 1972, when an ILO comprehensive Employment Mission to

160 Kenya introduced the term “informal sector” to describe the vast range of unregulated,
small-scale activities outside the formal wage economy10. The mission’s report,
4 Employment, Incomes and Equality: A Strategy for Increasing Productive Employment
in Kenya, devoted an entire chapter to the informal sector, documenting that what had
129 been viewed as a residual traditional sector had not only persisted but expanded,
encompassing both marginal survival activities and profitable small
51 [Link]. Around the same time, anthropologist Keith Hart’s study of urban
workers in Ghana also highlighted the “informal” income opportunities that sustained
many migrants, coining the same term11. These early analyses challenged the prevailing
notion that informality was merely a backward or temporary domain. Instead, they
31 suggested that a large segment of labour in developing countries operated in an
unregulated economy, often with considerable dynamism and resilience, but outside the
reach of existing labour laws and institutions.

117 Initial reactions in policy circles to the concept of the informal sector were mixed. Many
officials still regarded the informal workforce as peripheral to the “real” economy, a
realm of tax evaders and unregistered businesses that would disappear with sufficient

36 9
Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO), History & Debates (WIEGO
3 website, updated 2021) (noting that by the mid-1960s optimism about growth yielded to concerns about
153 widespread unemployment and persistent traditional sectors, prompting the ILO to mount employment
missions to developing countries).
10
International Labour Organization, Employment, Incomes and Equality: A Strategy for Increasing
Productive Employment in Kenya (Geneva: ILO, 1972) (introducing the phrase “informal sector” and
analyzing Kenya’s informal economic activities in detail).
4 11
Keith Hart, “Informal Income Opportunities and Urban Employment in Ghana” (1973) 11(1) Journal of
164 Modern African Studies 61 (originating the concept of the “informal sector” in development discourse).

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growth or could be ignored in national planning12. Others, including some within the
ILO, recognized that informal employment was deeply linked to the broader economy
and provided essential livelihoods for the [Link]. Through the late 1970s, the
ILO continued research and technical programs on informal incomes and small enterprise
development, even as the issue remained somewhat marginal in official deliberations.
9 Notably, the ILO’s World Employment Programme in the 1970s undertook studies
36 highlighting the positive aspects of informal activities (such as entrepreneurship and job
creation), which helped legitimise the topic.

By the 1980s, the persistence of informality could no longer be downplayed. Economic

crises, for example, the debt crisis in Latin America during the 1980s, drove masses of
retrenched workers and educated youth into informal employment as a fallback13. Even
in industrialized countries, labour markets were undergoing restructuring: secure,
standard jobs were giving way to subcontracting and “atypical” work arrangements,
effectively informalising parts of the formal [Link]. This period
1 saw a shift in attitudes among global policy actors. In 1984, the International
Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), the largest global union federation, passed
a landmark resolution acknowledging that trade unions could “no longer remain
indifferent or unresponsive” to the growing informal sector and calling on unions to
organize and protect informal workers14. This marked a sea change from the earlier
stance of many unions, which had been hesitant to engage with informal workers.
Employers’ organizations, for their part, began to view informality with concern but also

12
WIEGO, History & Debates, supra note 9 (observing that many in the 1970s viewed the informal
economy as peripheral and expected it to disappear with modern industrial growth, while others argued it
might persist and even expand alongside formal development).
9 13
WIEGO, History & Debates, supra note 9 (noting that economic crises in Latin America in the 1980s
and in Asia in the 1990s demonstrated that people who lose formal jobs often turn to the informal economy
to earn their livelihoods).
29 14
P. E. Bangasser, The ILO and the Informal Sector: An Institutional History (ILO Employment
Paper 1999/9, Geneva, 2000) 39–40 (noting that in 1984 the ICFTU at its congress passed a resolution
144 calling for trade unions to take a more active role regarding the informal sector, marking a significant shift
in attitude among labour organiz

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pragmatism, citing unfair competition from unregulated enterprises, yet increasingly

accepting that gradual formalisation, not neglect, was needed.

1 The 1990s consolidated the international recognition of the informal labour problem. In
165 1991 the ILO’s Governing Body held a high-level discussion titled “The Dilemma of the
Informal Sector,” reflecting the fact that informality posed a complex policy challenge:
on one hand a source of jobs and entrepreneurial energy, on the other hand a realm of
4 vulnerability and evasion of labour standards. In 1993, the 15th International Conference
of Labour Statisticians adopted a formal statistical definition of the informal sector,
standardizing the criteria for measuring informal employment globally15. This was a
1 significant step, as countries began collecting data on informal employment in a
comparable way, making the magnitude of the issue increasingly visible in official
statistics. Meanwhile, globalization and structural adjustment policies were accelerating
informalisation in many developing economies during the [Link]. As tariff
barriers fell and competition intensified, firms often externalized work to informal
enterprises or casual labour to cut costs, adding to the ranks of unprotected workers16.

By the turn of the millennium, addressing the conditions of informal workers had moved
89 to the forefront of the international labour agenda. The ILO’s Decent Work Agenda
12 (launched in 1999) explicitly included the goal of extending rights and protection to
161
17 workers “in the informal economy” as part of achieving decent work for all. The
International Labour Conference of 2002 held a major general discussion on “Decent
Work and the Informal Economy,” resulting in a consensus that overcoming the decent
6 work deficit in informality was central to the ILO’s mission. The Conclusions of that ILC
discussion emphasized that informal workers should enjoy fundamental rights at work
and called for an integrated strategy of protective legislation, extending social security,

30 15
International Labour Organization, Resolution concerning statistics of employment in the informal
sector, adopted by the 15th International Conference of Labour Statisticians (Geneva, 19–28 Jan. 1993)
118 (setting the first international statistical definition of the informal sector for data-collection purposes).
20 16
Guy Standing, Global Labour Flexibility: Seeking Distributive Justice (Basingstoke: Palgrave
Macmillan, 1999) 17–20 (discussing how globalization and competitive pressures in the 1990s contributed
to the informalization of employment relationships in both developing and advanced economies).

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and promotion of entrepreneurship to facilitate formalisation17. Around the same time,

the United Nations and other multilateral bodies began linking informal employment
87 with poverty reduction efforts. In 2008, a UN-sponsored Commission on Legal
46 Empowerment of the Poor, co-chaired by Madeleine Albright, underscored that over half
of the world’s workers and entrepreneurs were excluded from the protection of the law,
trapped in informality, a situation it identified as a key barrier to development18. The
Commission’s report urged countries to extend legal identity, property rights, and labour
130 rights to those in the informal economy as part of a comprehensive empowerment
agenda.

In the 2010s, international efforts culminated in concrete new standards and global
41 commitments on informal labour. The year 2015 was especially noteworthy. The ILO
adopted Recommendation No. 204 on the Transition from the Informal to the Formal
Economy, the first ever international instrument devoted entirely to the informal
economy19. That same year, the United Nations General Assembly incorporated “decent
12 work for all” into the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including targets to
promote formalization and labour rights for informal and precarious workers20. These
milestones reflected the hard-won global consensus that had formed: that far from being
a temporary anomaly, the unorganised sector is a permanent and significant component

17
International Labour Conference, 90th Session, Resolution and Conclusions concerning Decent Work
and the Informal Economy (Geneva, 2002) (emphasizing the need to reduce decent work deficits in the
informal economy by extending rights, protections and social dialogue to informal workers, and inviting
the ILO Governing Body to plan future action accordingly).
44 18
Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor, Making the Law Work for Everyone, vol. I (New York:
119 UNDP, 2008) 1–3 (estimating that as many as 4 billion people worldwide are “robbed of the chance to
better their lives and climb out of poverty, because they are excluded from the rule of law,” and advocating
four “pillars” of legal empowerment including access to labour rights for informal workers).
34 19
International Labour Organization, Recommendation No. 204 concerning the Transition from the
Informal to the Formal Economy (adopted 12 June 2015).
49 20
UN General Assembly Resolution 70/1, Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
42 Development (25 Sept. 2015), Targets 8.3 and 8.8 (committing States to promote policies supporting the
98 formalization and growth of micro- and small enterprises and to protect labour rights and promote safe
working environments “for all workers, including migrant workers, particularly women migrants, and
those in precarious employment”).

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of the world economy, and that securing justice for informal workers is indispensable to
achieving inclusive and sustainable development. Today, the ILO routinely assesses
progress on reducing informality as part of its global indicators, with over 58% of world
employment still informal as of the early 2020s, and with the rate of decline in
informality far too slow to meet the SDG target of substantial formalization by 203021,
and extending protection to informal workers remains a pressing mandate for
international labour governance. The evolution of international concern, from neglect
and assumption of disappearance, to acknowledgment and proactive standard-setting,
2 demonstrates a dramatic broadening of the scope of labour law and policy in the face of
real-world labour market transformations.

International Legal Instruments Addressing Informal

Labour

126 ILO Conventions and Standards: The International Labour Organization’s corpus of
labour standards provides an overarching framework that, at least in principle, protects
52 workers in the informal economy. Notably, the eight fundamental ILO Conventions, on
freedom of association, collective bargaining, elimination of forced and child labour, and
75 nondiscrimination, apply to “all workers” without distinction between formal or informal
72 sectors22. These core standards (buttressed by the 1998 ILO Declaration on Fundamental
91 Principles and Rights at Work) obligate States to extend basic rights like the right to
organize, freedom from forced labour, abolition of child labour, and equality of
opportunity to every worker, including those in unregulated settings. For example, the
97 prohibition of forced labour in ILO Conventions Nos. 29 and 105 is as relevant to a

85 21
United Nations, The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2023 (New York: UN, 2023) 12 (noting
that the global informal employment rate barely changed between 2015 and 2022 – from about 61.2% to
60.6% of men and 54.7% to 55.2% of women – indicating much more progress is needed to meet
formalization targets by 2030).
22
ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, 86th ILC Session (Geneva, 1998)
(affirming that all Members of the ILO have an obligation to respect, promote and realize the principles
concerning the fundamental rights contained in the eight core Conventions, regardless of whether they
have ratified them).

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bonded labourer or trafficked domestic servant in the informal sector as it is to any

17 factory employee. Likewise, the right of workers to form and join trade unions (enshrined
in Conventions Nos. 87 and 98) has been invoked to argue for legal recognition of unions
4 of informal workers such as street vendors and domestic workers23. In practice, many
countries initially exempted informal workers from these protections, for instance, by
excluding certain small enterprises or casual workers from labour law coverage, but
international supervision has increasingly pressed for closing such gaps so that
fundamental rights truly become universal.

108 Beyond the core conventions, the ILO has adopted specific instruments to address
categories of unorganised labour and extend labour standards to sectors long considered
143 “informal”. One early example is the Labour Inspection Convention, 1947 (No. 81),
which, though focused on factories and shops, asserted the principle of labour inspection
1 in all workplaces. Its sister instrument, the Labour Inspection (Agriculture) Convention,
1969 (No. 129), sought to bring the large informal agricultural sector under basic
6 regulatory oversight24. The Employment Policy Convention, 1964 (No. 122) also
deserves mention: it commits governments to pursue full employment and “freedom of
choice of employment”. Although it does not explicitly mention informality,
Convention 122’s mandate for national employment planning implicitly covers the
underemployment typical of informal economies, pushing States to create decent jobs
and integrate marginalized workers25.

Over time, the ILO began crafting standards tailored explicitly to workers in informal
162
53 settings. The Home Work Convention, 1996 (No. 177) was a significant milestone: it
requires ratifying States to adopt policies to improve the conditions of homeworkers,
individuals who work from their home or other informal premises for an employer or

23
ILO, Committee on Freedom of Association, Digest of Decisions of the Committee on Freedom of
Association, 6th ed. (Geneva: ILO, 2018) para. 254 (affirming that workers in the informal economy,
including those self-employed, are entitled to form and join organizations of their own choosing under
Convention No. 87
1 24
ILO Convention No. 81 (Labour Inspection, 1947); ILO Convention No. 129 (Labour Inspection
(Agriculture), 1969).
25
ILO Convention No. 122 (Employment Policy, 1964).

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3 intermediary26. Convention 177 mandates that all homeworkers should enjoy basic
labour rights; it guarantees the applicability of core labour standards and other
protections to homeworkers; and it sets a standard for their minimum pay and working
conditions, including occupational health and safety. Although its ratification rate
remains low (just 10 countries so far), Convention 177 established a principle that even
dispersed, informal workers producing goods at home are entitled to labour rights and
legal visibility.

111 Another breakthrough came with the Domestic Workers Convention, 2011 (No. 189).
This convention was expressly designed to protect workers in private households, a
quintessential informal sector often excluded from labour laws. Convention 189 sets out
that domestic workers must enjoy terms and conditions not less favorable than those of
other workers, including daily and weekly rest, a minimum wage where it exists,
overtime compensation, social security, and protection from abuse and exploitation27. It
also obliges governments to regulate recruitment agencies and to extend dispute
resolution and labour inspection mechanisms to domestic work. The adoption of
Convention 189 was a landmark victory for informal worker advocacy groups and has
led to numerous countries instituting reforms (for example, many Latin American states
and South Africa introduced minimum wages or labor contracts for domestic workers in
line with the Convention’s standards). As of mid-2025, Convention 189 has been ratified
by 37 countries, signalling growing global acceptance that domestic workers deserve
formal labour rights28.

In addition to these binding conventions, the ILO has complemented them with non-
5 binding but authoritative guidelines. The Transition from the Informal to the Formal
Economy Recommendation, 2015 (No. 204) is the clearest example.
Recommendation 204 provides a comprehensive menu of policies for facilitating the
gradual formalisation of informal enterprises and jobs, while also protecting the

26
ILO Convention No. 177 (Home Work, 1996).
27
ILO Convention No. 189 (Domestic Workers, 2011); entered into force 5 Sept. 2013. (As of 2025, 37
countries have ratified Convention 189.)
28
ILO Convention No. 189 (Domestic Workers, 2011); entered into force 5 Sept. 2013. (As of 2025, 37
countries have ratified Convention 189.)

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livelihoods and rights of workers during the transition29. It urges measures such as
124 simplifying registration procedures for micro-enterprises, extending social security
coverage to informal workers, preventing the exploitation of workers “informalized” via
outsourcing, and ensuring freedom of association in informal settings. Importantly, R204
emphasizes a balanced approach, formalisation should occur in a way that improves
working conditions and legal protections, rather than simply pushing vulnerable workers
5 out of work. Another relevant instrument is the Social Protection Floors
Recommendation, 2012 (No. 202), which calls on States to guarantee at least a basic
6 level of social security to all residents including those in the informal economy, for
instance, access to essential health care and income security30. Taken together, these ILO
136 standards form a multilayered legal regime: even if not all informal workers are directly
covered by each labour law in every country, international law increasingly articulates
that no category of worker should be left wholly unprotected.

61 Universal Human Rights Instruments: Broader international human rights law

105 reinforces and expands these labour-specific norms. The Universal Declaration of
25 Human Rights, 1948 proclaims in Article 23 the right of “everyone” to just and favorable
conditions of work, equal pay for equal work, and to form and join trade unions, and in
56 Article 24 the right to rest and leisure31. Although the UDHR is non-binding, it set the
tone for inclusion, the drafters did not limit these rights to formal-sector employees.
81 Subsequently, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 1966
137 (ICESCR) made many of these principles binding in treaty form. Under Article 6 of the
73 ICESCR, States must take steps to realize the right to work; Article 7 guarantees fair
wages, safe and healthy working conditions, equal opportunity and remuneration, and
reasonable working hours for all workers, which clearly encompasses those in informal
60 employment32. Similarly, Article 8 of the ICESCR protects the right of everyone to form
trade unions and to strike, and Article 9 recognizes the right to social security, a critical
entitlement for informal workers who typically lack coverage. The UN Committee on

29
ILO Recommendation No. 204 (2015).
37 30
ILO Recommendation No. 202 (Social Protection Floors, 2012).
28 31
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, G.A. Res. 217A (III) (1948), arts. 23–24.
58 32
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, 1979, art. 11.

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Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which supervises ICESCR implementation, has
18 explicitly noted that these rights apply regardless of a worker’s status in the formal or
18 informal economy, and it has urged governments to extend labour protections and social
security to informal workers as a core obligation under the Covenant33.

Other UN treaties address more specific dimensions of informal labour. The Convention
on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, 1979 (CEDAW)
obliges States Parties to eliminate discrimination in employment (Article 11) and to
51 ensure women enjoy workplace rights equal to men34. Given that women comprise a
large percentage of the informal workforce and often face intersecting vulnerabilities
(such as being concentrated in domestic work, home-based work, or unpaid family
labour), the CEDAW Committee has drawn attention to their situation. In a 1991 General
50 Recommendation, the Committee highlighted the need to recognize and protect the rights
of women working in informal enterprises and as unpaid contributing family workers,
recommending measures like inclusion in labour statistics and coverage by labour laws
102 and social insurance schemes35. The Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989 (CRC)
48 in Article 32 requires governments to protect children from economic exploitation and
from work that is hazardous or interferes with their education, health and development,
154 a provision directly aimed at the prevalent problem of child labour in the informal
economy36. This has spurred international programmes to eliminate child labour in
6 informal sectors such as agriculture, mining and street vending (e.g. ILO–UNICEF
23 initiatives under Convention No. 182 on Worst Forms of Child Labour). Additionally,
the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and
Members of Their Families, 1990 affirms basic labour rights for migrant workers
“without discrimination” (Articles 25–26), including those in irregular or undocumented
status who often end up in informal employment37. While not universally ratified, this

27 33
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 1966, arts. 6–9.
34
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, 1979, art. 11.
7 35
CEDAW Committee, General Recommendation No. 16: Unpaid Women Workers in Rural and Urban
Family Enterprises (1991).
10 36
Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989, art. 32.
37
International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their
Families, 1990, arts. 25–26.

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157 migrants’ rights treaty underscores that migrant informal workers are entitled to equality
59 in wages and working conditions and to social protection on par with nationals, reflecting
138 an international concern over the exploitation of migrant labour in informal sectors (such
as construction, agriculture and domestic work).

On the regional plane, human rights charters have similarly been interpreted to cover
71 informal workers. The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, 1981 provides in
Article 15 that “every individual shall have the right to work under equitable and
satisfactory conditions”, a clause that African human rights bodies have applied in
contexts involving informal mining and agricultural workers to demand that States
prevent abusive conditions38. The Additional Protocol to the American Convention on
Human Rights in the Area of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (Protocol of San
Salvador, 1988) explicitly protects just, equitable and satisfactory conditions of work
(Article 7) and the right to organize (Article 8) for all workers; it has been used to argue
for extending labour code protections to informal-sector workers in Latin American
37 countries39. In Europe, although the European Social Charter (revised 1996) and EU law
traditionally focus on formal employment relationships, their guarantees are increasingly
104 interpreted to be inclusive. The European Committee of Social Rights, which monitors
the Social Charter, has pressed States to ensure that rights like safe working conditions,
fair remuneration, and social security (Articles 3, 4 and 12 of the Charter) benefit
informal and precarious workers, for example, by enlarging occupational safety
regulations to cover domestic workers and by creating schemes to bring informal workers
into social insurance systems40. Meanwhile, the European Union has taken specific legal
measures against “undeclared work”, the EU term for informal employment. A notable
57 step was Decision (EU) 2016/344, which established a European Platform to enhance
cooperation in tackling undeclared work, aiming to improve enforcement of labour laws

14 38
African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, 1981, art. 15.
39
Additional Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights in the Area of Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights (“Protocol of San Salvador”), 1988, arts. 6–7.
66 40
European Social Charter (Revised), 1996, arts. 3, 4, 12.

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61 across Member States’ informal economies41. In recent years, the EU has also adopted
7 directives to strengthen protections for non-standard workers, such as the Transparent
and Predictable Working Conditions Directive 2019/1152, which broadens certain basic
labour rights to cover casual and gig workers who were often in legal grey zones42. And
7 at the time of writing, the EU is moving toward a directive on platform work that would
curb misclassification of gig workers and ensure that many receive employee-status
protections. These regional developments illustrate that even in advanced economies,
where informal work is smaller in scale, there is growing recognition that gaps in labour
protection must be closed.

National Initiatives Influenced by International Law: International norms have

spurred or inspired numerous domestic legal reforms targeting the unorganised sector.
For instance, prompted by ILO Convention 189, countries such as the Philippines and
South Africa introduced comprehensive domestic worker legislation to guarantee
minimum wages, written contracts, and social security for domestic helpers43. Brazil,
drawing on ILO recommendations on formalisation, launched a simplified micro-
enterprise registration system (the MEI regime) in 2008 which has since brought millions
of informal entrepreneurs into the tax and social security net by greatly reducing red tape
55 and costs44. In India, the influence of ILO standards and UN human rights covenants is
35 evident in the Unorganised Workers’ Social Security Act, 2008 and more recently in the
Code on Social Security, 2020, laws aimed at extending certain welfare schemes and
62 social insurance to informal workers on a nationwide scale45. In industrialized countries

2 41
Decision (EU) 2016/344 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 March 2016 on establishing
a European Platform to enhance cooperation in the prevention and deterrence of undeclared work, OJ
L 65/12 (11.3.2016).
42
Directive (EU) 2019/1152 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 on transparent
and predictable working conditions in the European Union, OJ L 186/105 (11.7.2019); see also European
Commission, Proposal for a Directive on improving working conditions in platform work,
COM(2021) 762 final (9 Dec. 2021).
43
ILO Convention No. 189 (Domestic Workers, 2011); entered into force 5 Sept. 2013.
44
Lei Complementar Nº 128/2008 (Brazil) (establishing the Microempreendedor Individual (MEI)
simplified regime to facilitate formalization of single-person informal enterprises through reduced taxation
and streamlined registration).
76 45
The Unorganised Workers’ Social Security Act, 2008 (India); Code on Social Security, 2020 (India).

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too, concerns over the abuse of vulnerable informal labour have led to new laws. The
United Kingdom created the Gangmasters Licensing Authority in 2004 (after horrific
incidents of migrant workers’ exploitation) to regulate labour recruiters in agriculture
and informal sectors46, and enacted the Modern Slavery Act, 2015 to strengthen penalties
against forced labour and mandate large companies to police forced labour (often in
informal outsourcing) in their supply chains47. The United States, while lacking universal
labour laws for informal workers, has used trade policy as a lever: its Generalized System
of Preferences program and free trade agreements include labour rights clauses requiring
trading partners to uphold fundamental labour standards in all sectors, which has
pressured several countries to clamp down on exploitative informal labour practices or
face trade sanctions48. Thus, from developing economies to developed ones, international
legal efforts have gradually permeated into national policy, leading to a patchwork of
initiatives, some directly implementing global conventions, others innovating new
approaches, all aimed at better governance of the informal labour sector.

Institutional Mechanisms and Global Programs for

Informal Workers

International organizations and coalitions have complemented formal legal instruments

with a range of programs, initiatives and partnerships to support unorganised workers.
The ILO itself, beyond setting standards, has been at the forefront of technical assistance
1 and advocacy on informal labour. Since the early 2000s, the ILO has mainstreamed the
goal of “formalizing the informal economy” into its Decent Work Country Programs and
development cooperation projects. It established a dedicated Informal Economy unit and
has published extensive research, training manuals and toolkits to help countries
13 diagnose the scale and characteristics of their informal sectors. For example, the ILO
partnered with the World Bank to develop new statistical methodologies for measuring
informal employment, leading to improved data that now regularly informs policy (as

46
Gangmasters (Licensing) Act 2004 (UK).
47
Modern Slavery Act 2015 (UK).
48
19 U.S.C. §§2461–2467 (United States) (Generalized System of Preferences program conditioning trade
122 benefits on countries taking steps to afford internationally recognized worker rights).

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112 seen in the periodic Women and Men in the Informal Economy reports)49. The ILO’s
technical experts have assisted many countries in drafting policies, from simplifying
business registration to extending labor inspection to informal workplaces, in line with
Recommendation 204’s guidance. Importantly, the Organization has also worked to
build capacity among worker and employer organizations to include informal workers.
Through its Bureau for Workers’ Activities (ACTRAV), the ILO has supported trade
union campaigns to organize informal workers (for instance, helping to convene a global
53 conference of unions on the informal economy in 2007). Likewise, the ILO has engaged
with informal workers’ associations: it provided substantive support for the creation of
16 the International Domestic Workers Federation in 2013 and has given platform space in
96 its conferences to organizations of home-based workers, street vendors and waste pickers
to voice their concerns. In short, the ILO’s on-the-ground programs, spanning child
109 labour elimination projects, micro-enterprise development schemes, and the extension of
social security coverage, form a crucial pillar of the international response, translating
high-level standards into practical improvements for informal workers.

146 The United Nations system more broadly has increasingly targeted the informal economy
in its development agendas. The importance of protecting informal workers is explicitly
12 recognized in the Sustainable Development Goals (especially SDG target 8.3 on
100 formalization and 8.8 on labour rights). UN agencies such as the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP) and UN Women have implemented projects aimed at
empowering informal workers, for example, helping municipalities design inclusive
policies for street vendors, or training women entrepreneurs in the informal sector. A
notable UN-wide effort has been the Social Protection Floor Initiative, launched in 2009,
which promotes universal access to basic social security guarantees50. This initiative,
78
6 endorsed by the UN General Assembly, focuses on ensuring that even workers in the
unorganised sector are covered by essential health care, maternity benefits, child support

49
International Labour Office & WIEGO, Women and Men in the Informal Economy: A Statistical Picture,
3rd ed. (Geneva: ILO, 2018) (collaborative ILO–WIEGO report improving data on the size and
composition of informal employment worldwide).
38 50
ILO and WHO, Social Protection Floor Initiative – Manual and Strategic Framework for Joint UN
Country Operations (Geneva: ILO, 2009).

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123 and pensions. The International Monetary Fund and World Bank have also
acknowledged the centrality of the informal sector in their policy advice: in recent years,
the IMF has advised countries to broaden tax and social insurance coverage to informal
enterprises as part of fiscal reforms, and the World Bank’s policy research has examined
how excessive regulation or lack of incentives can perpetuate informality, leading to
recommendations for balanced approaches that encourage formalization while
93 improving informal workers’ livelihoods. Notably, the World Bank’s flagship World
Development Report 2019 on the future of work advocated expanding social protections
beyond the formal wage sector, effectively calling for de-linking social benefits from
formal employment status to cover workers in diverse forms of work.

Global and regional alliances have emerged to coordinate efforts on specific issues
29 affecting informal labour. For instance, Alliance 8.7, a global partnership launched in
6 2016 to eradicate forced labour, human trafficking and child labour, brings together
governments, ILO, UN agencies, businesses and civil society to address these abuses,
10 which occur overwhelmingly in the informal economy (such as child labour in
agriculture or forced labour in illicit industries)51. The Alliance 8.7 initiative works on
country roadmaps that invariably include measures to strengthen labour inspection in
informal workplaces and to extend legal identity and protections to informal workers as
1 a prevention strategy against exploitation. Another coalition, the Global Deal for Decent
Work and Inclusive Growth (spearheaded in 2016 by Sweden, with the OECD and ILO),
works to promote social dialogue worldwide, including bargaining and dialogue
mechanisms that encompass informal workers and small enterprises, on the premise that
cooperation between workers, employers and governments can improve job quality in all
segments of the economy52. In the realm of supply chains, various multi-stakeholder
initiatives have taken root in response to tragedies stemming from informal workshops
16 and subcontractors. The 2013 Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh (which

51
Alliance 8.7, “About Alliance 8.7” (ILO, 2016) (describing the multi-stakeholder Global Alliance
134 launched to coordinate action towards Target 8.7 of the SDGs – ending forced labour, human trafficking
and child labour).
16 52
OECD & ILO, The Global Deal for Decent Work and Inclusive Growth – Annual Report 2017 (Paris:
OECD, 2017).

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highlighted dangerous conditions in the semi-formal garment supply chain) led to the
45 Accord on Fire and Building Safety, a legally binding agreement between global brands
and unions to enforce safety standards on garment factories, including many previously
informal subcontracting units. This Accord, and similar programs in other industries like
the International Cocoa Initiative addressing child labour on informal cocoa farms,
2 demonstrate the growing trend of international cooperation to reach workers at the
bottom of global supply chains.

Regional organizations have tailored programs to their contexts as well. The European
Union, in addition to its legal measures on undeclared work, operates the European
Platform on Undeclared Work which facilitates exchanges of best practices among
national labour inspectorates and social security institutes53. Through this Platform (now
under the umbrella of the European Labour Authority), EU members have conducted
joint inspections and information campaigns, for example, coordinated “inspection
weeks” where labour inspectors across multiple countries target sectors like construction
or hospitality known for off-the-books work. The EU also funds research and pilot
1 projects on transitioning workers from the informal to formal economy in Eastern Europe
12 and the Balkans as part of its enlargement and neighborhood policies. In Africa, the
African Union’s Agenda 2063 and related social policy frameworks emphasize the need
to integrate informal economy actors into national economic planning. The AU’s 2004
150 Ouagadougou Declaration on Employment and Poverty Reduction, for instance, called
5 on member states to extend social protection to workers in the informal economy and to
155 support the growth of micro- and small enterprises as a route to formal job creation.
Follow-up monitoring by the AU includes tracking the share of vulnerable employment,
and the African Development Bank has run projects providing skills training and
70 microfinance to informal workers, aligned with those continental commitments. In Latin
America, the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Inter-American
Development Bank have jointly supported programs to improve productivity and legal
registration of informal businesses, such as simplifying tax filing for micro-entrepreneurs

2 53
Decision (EU) 2016/344 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 March 2016 on establishing
a European Platform to enhance cooperation in the prevention and deterrence of undeclared work, OJ
L 65/12 (11.3.2016).

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and establishing one-stop shops for business formalization. Many Latin American
121 countries, through mutual learning exchanges often facilitated by the ILO’s Inter-
American Centre for Knowledge Development, drew inspiration from one another in
135 adopting innovations like Monotributo (a unified tax and social security contribution
system for independent informal workers pioneered in Argentina and Uruguay).

Crucially, informal workers themselves have become organized at international scale and
40 are partnering with these institutions. A key player is the network WIEGO (Women in
Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing), formed in 1997, which brings
3 together grassroots organizations of informal workers (such as domestic workers’ unions,
home-based worker cooperatives, street vendor federations and waste picker
associations), researchers, and development practitioners54. WIEGO has collaborated
closely with the ILO, for example, on improving informal economy [Link]
and on sharing policy models, and has been instrumental in amplifying informal workers’
voices in global forums. It was involved in the campaign that led to Convention 189 and
continues to assist with its implementation by training domestic workers’ unions.
66 Similarly, global union federations have extended their reach to informal workers: the
International Union of Food Workers (IUF) now supports alliances of informal food
vendors and agricultural day laborers, and Public Services International (PSI) has helped
1 organize waste pickers in several cities. The International Trade Union Confederation
(ITUC) in 2014 launched a “Count Us In!” campaign to organize 14 million informal
women workers, and it admitted the International Domestic Workers Federation as an
associate member, a significant recognition of an informal worker organization within
the world’s peak union body. These efforts are frequently backed by solidarity support
from established unions (for instance, trade unions in Belgium and Sweden funding
projects to train informal economy organisers in Africa). On the employers’ side,
chambers of commerce and industry associations in some countries have partnered with

54
WIEGO, “About WIEGO: Supporting Informal Workers’ Movements” (WIEGO, accessed 1 June 2025)
(describing WIEGO as a global network of informal worker organizations, researchers and advocates
working to secure livelihoods and rights for workers in informal employment).

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informal sector cooperatives to provide training and market access, with encouragement
from the ILO’s Cooperative Unit and national governments.

In summary, an ecosystem of institutional initiatives now surrounds the issue of informal

labour: from the ILO’s field projects and monitoring mechanisms, to UN multi-agency
campaigns, to regional coordination platforms, to transnational networks of informal
workers themselves. While these are diverse in approach, ranging from top-down policy
reform to bottom-up organizing, all share the objective of empowering informal workers,
whether by bringing them under the umbrella of laws and protections, enhancing their
bargaining power, or improving their livelihood opportunities. The multiplicity of
programs also reflects the multifaceted nature of the informal economy problem,
requiring interventions on many fronts: legal, economic, social, and institutional.

Legal Frameworks and Case Law: International and

Domestic Perspectives

Despite the proliferation of international standards and initiatives, a persistent

implementation gap remains between the rights of informal workers in principle and their
reality in practice. In many countries, unorganised workers still fall outside the effective
149
43 protection of labour laws and social security systems. For example, the ILO’s World
139 Social Protection Report 2020–22 noted that 4.1 billion people, a majority of the world’s
43 population, predominantly informal workers and their families, had no access to any
social protection benefits, highlighting the enormous coverage deficit that still exists55.
Similarly, in its comments on labour inspection conventions, the ILO’s Committee of
Experts frequently observes that labour law enforcement is largely absent in the informal
economy of many developing countries, meaning that legal standards (like minimum
wage or safety rules) are not applied on the ground. This implementation gap is not due

55
International Labour Organization, World Social Protection Report 2020–22 (Geneva: ILO, 2021) 45
(noting that approximately 4.1 billion people – mostly informal workers and their families – lack any
access to social protection, meaning they are unprotected against income losses or health expenses).

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to a lack of legal norms, as we have seen, the norms are abundant, but often due to limited
capacity, political will, or economic pressures at the national level.

National courts and international tribunals have increasingly become arenas for
35 addressing these gaps, sometimes pushing the envelope of protections for informal
101 workers. In India, for instance, the judiciary has played a pioneering role in interpreting
8 constitutional and statutory provisions in favor of unorganised labour. In the early 1980s,
the Supreme Court of India famously ruled that the exploitation of construction workers
on a government project, who were not being paid minimum wages, amounted to forced
labour prohibited by the Constitution, reasoning that any labour provided below the
statutory minimum wage is inherently coercive and violates human dignity56. This path-
86 breaking judgment in People’s Union for Democratic Rights v. Union of India effectively
read international forced labour standards into domestic law for the benefit of informal
labourers. Likewise, in the bonded labour case of Bandhua Mukti Morcha (1984), the
Supreme Court relied on fundamental rights and human rights norms to free and
rehabilitate stone quarry workers who were trapped in debt bondage57. The Indian
113 judiciary’s Public Interest Litigation (PIL) mechanism has allowed NGOs to seek
enforcement of labour laws for unorganised workers, leading to directives for the
government to extend welfare schemes, implement construction workers’ boards,
regulate placement agencies for domestic work, and so forth. In the landmark Olga Tellis
67 case (1985) concerning pavement dwellers in Mumbai, the Supreme Court recognized
the right to livelihood as implicit in the constitutional right to life, a principle that has
since been invoked to prevent the arbitrary eviction of street vendors and to push
authorities to adopt inclusive licensing for informal traders58. Such jurisprudence, often

8 56
People’s Union for Democratic Rights v. Union of India, (1982) 3 SCC 235 (India Sup. Ct.) (holding
that payment of wages below the statutory minimum to workers engaged on government construction
63
78 projects constituted “forced labour” in violation of Article 23 of the Constitution).
57
Bandhua Mukti Morcha v. Union of India, AIR 1984 SC 802 (India Sup. Ct.) (recognizing the existence
148
132 of bonded labour in stone quarries as a violation of fundamental rights and directing the government to
identify, release and rehabilitate all bonded labourers).
21
7 58
Olga Tellis v. Bombay Municipal Corporation, AIR 1986 SC 180 (India Sup. Ct.) (holding that the right
to life under Article 21 of the Constitution includes the right to livelihood, thereby providing limited
protection against the eviction of pavement dwellers and street vendors without alternative arrangements).

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citing international human rights in support, illustrates that India’s courts have acted as
a crucial avenue for informal workers to attain rights when legislation or executive action
lagged.

This trend of judicial intervention is observable elsewhere as well. South Africa’s

77 Constitutional Court, in the 2020 case of Mahlangu v. Minister of Labour, struck down
the exclusion of domestic workers from that country’s occupational injury compensation
18 law as unconstitutional, invoking the rights to equality and dignity, and notably,
referencing the spirit of ILO Convention 189 even though South Africa had not yet
ratified it59. In Latin America, courts in countries like Colombia and Argentina have
relied on constitutional social rights to extend protections to informal workers (e.g.
mandating inclusive policies for street vendors or requiring coverage of domestic
55 workers in labor laws). At the international level, human rights courts have also
114 addressed abuses occurring predominantly in the informal economy. The European Court
11 of Human Rights has issued influential judgments under Article 4 of the European
Convention (prohibition of forced labour and servitude) to protect migrant and informal
115 workers. In Chowdury and Others v. Greece (2017), the Court found Greece responsible
for failing to prevent severe labour exploitation of Bangladeshi migrants working
informally on a strawberry farm, and it explicitly recognized that the situation of these
irregular, informally employed migrants fell within the scope of forced labour forbidden
by the Convention60. Earlier, in Siliadin v. France (2005), the Strasbourg Court held
France liable for not criminalizing and prosecuting the enslavement of a teenage girl who
worked as an unpaid domestic servant, a classic informal job, in Paris61. These cases led

64 59
Mahlangu and Another v. Minister of Labour and Others [2020] ZACC 24 (South African Const. Ct.)
32 (declaring unconstitutional the exclusion of domestic workers from the definition of “employee” in the
Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act, which had denied domestic workers work-
18 injury benefits, as violating their rights to equality and dignity).
68 60
Chowdury and Others v. Greece, ECtHR App. No. 21884/15 (Judgment of 30 Mar. 2017) (finding that
84 Greece breached Article 4 of the European Convention on Human Rights by failing to protect a group of
Bangladeshi migrant farm workers from forced labour and human trafficking, after armed supervisors shot
at workers demanding their pay).
120
2 61
Siliadin v. France, ECtHR App. No. 73316/01 (Judgment of 26 July 2005) (holding that France violated
Article 4 of the European Convention by not criminalizing a situation of domestic servitude – a 15-year-

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to legal reforms (for example, France criminalized modern servitude after Siliadin),
underscoring how international jurisprudence can drive changes benefiting informal
workers.

11 Beyond Europe, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Workers of Hacienda

Brasil Verde v. Brazil (2016) tackled a scenario of informal labour exploitation on a
103 Brazilian cattle ranch. In a landmark judgment, the Inter-American Court found the State
in violation of multiple human rights for failing to prevent and punish the enslavement
of 340 vulnerable workers in an informal ranching operation, and it ordered robust
measures including strengthened labour inspections and worker protections in rural
areas62. This was the first binding international judgment to use the term “modern
slavery” for contemporary labour exploitation, much of which occurs in informal
settings. These judicial and quasi-judicial decisions are significant: they demonstrate that
informal workers do have recourse to justice and that courts are willing to interpret
existing law, whether domestic constitutions or international treaties, in an expansive
manner to cover informal employment situations. Over time, such case law contributes
to a body of precedent that can influence lawmaking and enforcement practices globally.

Law reform and jurisprudence around the “gig economy” further illustrate the evolving
75 legal frameworks for new forms of informality. In many countries, gig workers (such as
ride-share drivers or food delivery couriers) have occupied a grey area between formal
and informal work, often classified as self-employed and thus denied labour law
protections. Spurred by advocacy and comparisons of best practices, some jurisdictions
95 have moved to reclassify or protect gig workers. For example, the United Kingdom’s
74 Supreme Court in Uber BV v. Aslam (2021) ruled that Uber drivers are “workers” entitled
to the national minimum wage and paid leave, rejecting the company’s claim that drivers

56 old Togolese girl kept as an unpaid domestic helper – and noting states’ positive obligation to protect
individuals from slavery, servitude and forced labour).
54 62
Workers of Hacienda Brasil Verde v. Brazil, Inter-Am. Ct. H.R. (ser. C) No. 318 (20 Oct. 2016) (holding
37 Brazil internationally responsible for violating rights to personal liberty, dignity and life by failing to
prevent and punish the enslavement of workers on the Brasil Verde ranch, and ordering reparations
including strengthened labour inspections and worker protections in rural areas).

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were independent contractors entirely outside labour regulation63. Courts in Spain and
France have reached similar conclusions for platform workers. Such decisions are
effectively bringing a segment of work that functioned informally (without standard
employer obligations) under the ambit of formal labour protections. Meanwhile, other
47 countries like India have introduced statutory definitions of “gig” and “platform”
workers in labour codes, aiming to extend social security to them even if they are not
categorized as employees. Though these steps are nascent, they indicate a legal
recognition that new forms of informal or semi-formal work require adaptation of the
125 existing framework, a process very much in line with the ILO’s century-old experience
of updating standards to meet changing patterns of work.

While courts and new laws are important, effective enforcement remains the crux of
strengthening informal workers’ rights. Here, international monitoring mechanisms play
22 a quiet but pivotal role. The ILO’s supervisory system, including the Committee of
Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations (CEACR) and the
Conference Committee on Application of Standards, has increasingly highlighted
informal economy issues in its reviews. For instance, when examining a country’s
compliance with the Labour Inspection Convention, the CEACR often asks what
measures are being taken to extend inspection services to informal workplaces like
agriculture, mines, or domestic work, thereby keeping up pressure on governments to
allocate resources and mandate inspectors to cover those areas. Similarly, in reviewing
94 compliance with the Minimum Wage Fixing Convention or Social Security (Minimum
Standards) Convention, the ILO has raised concerns where large swathes of the
workforce (read: the informal sector) are excluded, and it has encouraged more inclusive
coverage64. These supervisory comments, while not binding orders, have moral and
political weight; governments frequently respond by reporting new initiatives (for
example, setting up a task force on informal economy or piloting an extension of social

163
83 63
Uber BV and Others v. Aslam and Others [2021] UKSC 5 (UK Sup. Ct.) (unanimously ruling that Uber
47 drivers in the UK qualify as “workers” under national labour law, entitling them to minimum wage, paid
79 leave and other protections, and emphasizing that the reality of the working relationship – not the written
contract terms – determines employment status).
82 64
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 1966, arts. 6–9.

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insurance to self-employed) to show progress. In some cases, the ILO has even facilitated
tripartite discussions within countries, bringing together government officials, union reps
and informal worker groups, as a follow-up to supervisory observations, in order to chart
145 a path for better implementation of standards in the informal economy.

The effectiveness of these legal and institutional frameworks can be seen as a mixed
4 picture. On one hand, there is clearly greater incorporation of informal workers into the
scope of law and policy than in the past, more laws apply to them, more enforcement
bodies acknowledge them, and more jurisprudence defends them. Success stories exist:
tens of millions of previously informal workers have gained access to social pensions,
health care, or collective bargaining due to reforms in countries ranging from Uruguay
to Thailand to South Africa. The international campaign against child labour, largely
110 focused on the informal economy, has led to a significant reduction in child labour
globally over the last two decades, freeing many children from hazardous informal jobs.
On the other hand, the overall conditions for the average informal worker remain
difficult. By definition, informal employment means lacking full legal protection, and
despite all the efforts enumerated, over 2 billion people still work informally, often with
only tenuous access to rights. Even where laws exist on paper, enforcement is fraught:
labour inspectors face obstacles entering informal premises (like private homes or remote
rural areas), informal workers may not be aware of legal minimum wages or complaint
mechanisms, and fear of job loss or harassment often prevents those workers from
asserting claims. In many developing countries, informality is so pervasive that
authorities pragmatically focus on promoting voluntary compliance (e.g. persuading
street vendors to register for permits or persuading small firms to contribute to social
security) rather than punitive crackdowns, which means changes can be slow and
incremental.

Crucially, the broader socio-economic environment influences the efficacy of legal

protections for informal workers. If economic growth is jobless or if macroeconomic
policies squeeze the small enterprise sector, informal employment can expand faster than
improvements take hold. Conversely, when an economy formalizes through structural
change (for example, the natural shift from agriculture to manufacturing/services as seen
in some East Asian countries), the share of informal employment can drop significantly,

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making it easier for laws to reach the remaining pockets. International efforts thus
46 increasingly intersect with development policy: the ILO and World Bank now jointly
131 promote the idea of a “portfolio of protections” for workers in all forms of work,
including public employment programs, skills training, and universal social protection
floors, to create an enabling environment for formalization65. The COVID-19 pandemic
was a stark illustration: informal workers were disproportionately hurt by lockdowns,
with the ILO estimating that they lost about 60% of their income in the first month of the
crisis worldwide66. In response, dozens of countries extended emergency cash transfers
and food aid to informal workers. This extraordinary mobilization revealed both the
vulnerability of informal workers and the fact that governments can reach them if the
political will exists (often using innovative methods like mobile money or digital
databases such as India’s e-Shram). The challenge now is to convert such ad hoc
99 measures into permanent frameworks, a task that international initiatives like the UN’s
new Global Accelerator on Jobs and Social Protection are attempting to catalyze, by
calling for investments to provide social protection to the 4 billion people still left out67.

In summary, the legal frameworks and case law at international and domestic levels
reflect a trajectory of gradually extending the mantle of labour protection over informal
workers, driven by both top-down standards and bottom-up struggles. Significant gaps
remain in enforcement and coverage, but the direction of change is positive. Informal
workers are no longer invisible in the law: they are recognized subjects of rights. The
ongoing evolution of case law and the sharpening focus of international oversight bode

65
International Labour Organization, Centenary Declaration for the Future of Work (Geneva: ILO, 2019),
Part II(A) (calling for a human-centred approach to the future of work, including a “universal labour
guarantee” that all workers, irrespective of employment arrangement, enjoy fundamental workers’ rights,
an adequate living wage, safety and health at work, and social protection).
66
International Labour Organization, “ILO: COVID-19 crisis wipes out 60 per cent of global informal
80 employment income” (ILO Press Release, 29 Apr. 2020) (reporting that in the first month of the COVID-
19 pandemic, earnings of informal workers worldwide fell by an estimated 60% on average, with women
informal workers suffering a 50% larger decline than men).
15 67
UN General Assembly, Our Common Agenda – Report of the Secretary-General (New York: United
13 Nations, 2021) 21 (launching the Global Accelerator on Jobs and Social Protection to support countries in
13 creating at least 400 million jobs and extending social protection to the 4 billion people still unprotected,
as part of a post-COVID recovery geared towards inclusive growth).

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well for continuing progress. Ultimately, sustaining this momentum will depend on a
combination of vigilant international pressure, empowered worker organizations, and
responsive national governance. The law, international and national, provides the tools;
it is up to the actors in the system to wield them to transform the daily reality of
unorganised workers.

Comparing Indian and International Approaches

A brief comparison between India’s approach to unorganised labour and global practices
reveals both alignment with international norms and unique local strategies. India, with
one of the world’s largest informal economies (estimated at over 90% of its workforce),68
has been a key participant in international labour forums and has progressively updated
its laws, albeit sometimes belatedly, in response to global standards. For example, India
42 has ratified all eight ILO core Conventions, including those on child labour and forced
labour, and its Constitution and statutes broadly reflect these commitments (the
constitutional prohibitions on bonded labour and child labour echo ILO Conventions
No. 29, 105, 138 and 182). In practice, however, extending concrete protections to
India’s informal workers has been a daunting challenge, similar to many other
developing countries. For decades, India relied on a patchwork of sector-specific welfare
laws and boards (for beedi workers, construction workers, etc.) and an array of
government schemes to support unorganised workers, rather than a comprehensive
labour code for the informal sector. This fragmented approach led to significant gaps in
coverage and enforcement. Recognizing these deficiencies, and influenced by
65 international discourse on decent work, India set up the National Commission for
Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector (NCEUS) in the mid-2000s, which recommended
sweeping measures including a national law on social security for informal workers69.
21 Partly in response, the Unorganised Workers’ Social Security Act, 2008 was enacted,
151 followed more recently by the Code on Social Security, 2020, which consolidates social

68
Ibid
90 69
Ministry of Law and Justice (India), Code on Social Security, 2020 (Act No. 36 of 2020) (consolidating
167 and amending laws relating to social security with provisions extending certain schemes and social security
benefits to “unorganised workers, gig workers and platform workers”).

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156 insurance schemes and notably expands definitions to include gig workers and platform
workers70. These legislative efforts mirror global calls (from the ILO and others) for
extending social protection to all workers. Yet, much like the experience in other
countries, implementation remains the Achilles’ heel: ensuring that an informal domestic
worker or street vendor in India actually receives minimum wages, occupational safety
or maternity benefits is as challenging as ever, given limited inspection capacity and the
sheer scale of informality.

One area where India’s approach stands out is in the use of broad public employment and
welfare programs to uplift informal workers, in line with the country’s constitutional
24 directive principles. A flagship example is the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural
Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 (MGNREGA), which provides a legal guarantee of
100 days of wage employment per year to every rural household. MGNREGA,
unprecedented in its scope, has been internationally observed as a novel rights-based
approach to supporting informal rural labour by guaranteeing work and income,
effectively functioning as a form of social safety net and empowerment tool for the rural
poor. No comparable scheme exists at such scale in other countries, and it reflects how
India’s policy sometimes leverages law to create entitlements beyond conventional
labour legislation. On the other hand, when it comes to core labour rights for informal
workers, India’s record is mixed. For instance, India has not yet ratified ILO
Convention 189 on domestic workers or Convention 177 on home work, and its labour
laws until recently excluded or only weakly covered many categories of informal workers
(domestic work was virtually unregulated in most Indian states, and home-based piece
rate workers had no legal minimum wage until the 2019 Code on Wages extended
coverage in principle). In this respect, countries in Latin America arguably moved faster
in ratifying such conventions and formalizing those sectors, e.g. Brazil and several others
instituted comprehensive domestic worker laws in the 2010s in line with

70
Ministry of Labour and Employment (India), “Over 28 Crore Unorganised Workers Registered on e-
Shram Portal” (Press Release, 30 Dec. 2022) (announcing that more than 280 million unorganised sector
workers in India have been registered in the national e-Shram database to facilitate delivery of social
security and welfare benefits).

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Convention 189, whereas India is still deliberating on a national policy for domestic
workers.

Enforcement through the judiciary has been a notable feature of the Indian approach,
complementing legislative measures. Indian courts have often drawn on international
19 principles to advance informal workers’ rights. In the early 1980s, the Supreme Court of
India in People’s Union for Democratic Rights v. Union of India (the Asiad Workers
158 case) established that non-payment of minimum wages to informal contract labour is a
form of forced labour prohibited by the Constitution, a ruling influenced by the ILO’s
Forced Labour Convention71. Through such judgments, as well as decisions like
Bandhua Mukti Morcha (1984) on bonded labour72 and Olga Tellis (1985) on the right
to livelihood of the urban poor73, the Indian Supreme Court injected human rights
principles into the domestic law governing unorganised workers. This judicial activism
parallels developments in other countries: South Asian judiciaries (Bangladesh, Nepal)
have similarly referenced ILO conventions in PIL cases on child and bonded labour; and
courts in Latin America have invoked the Protocol of San Salvador to protect informal
workers’ livelihood rights. By comparison, many Western countries have relied less on
courts for informal worker issues (since formal employment prevails), though recent gig
economy litigation in the UK and EU is changing that dynamic.

Globally, the progress in protecting informal labour has been uneven, and India
exemplifies the struggle of an emerging economy trying to balance growth with social
justice for a vast informal workforce. On one hand, international norms and experiences
have guided India to make positive changes, such as simplifying labor laws into unified
codes, launching a national digital registry for unorganised workers (the e-Shram portal,
which by 2022 recorded over 280 million informal workers for targeted benefit
delivery)74, and expanding social security coverage (e.g. mandated provident fund
schemes now extend to certain gig workers). On the other hand, many challenges familiar
from the global context persist: low awareness among informal workers of their rights,

8 71
People’s Union for Democratic Rights v. Union of India, (1982) 3 SCC 235 (India Sup. Ct.)
33 72
Bandhua Mukti Morcha v. Union of India, AIR 1984 SC 802 (India Sup. Ct.)
73
Olga Tellis v. Bombay Municipal Corporation, AIR 1986 SC 180 (India Sup. Ct.)
106 74
Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 (India)

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bureaucratic hurdles in accessing schemes, and resistance from some businesses to

formalize workers due to cost considerations. In comparison with some other countries,
133 India’s enforcement of labour standards in the informal economy can appear weak, for
instance, Brazil and South Africa have more empowered labour inspectorates with a
mandate to enter even informal workplaces like farms and homes, whereas India’s labour
inspection in the informal sector is minimal and often reactive. However, the
fundamental issue of resource constraints and political will is universal. Whether in India
or elsewhere, bringing unorganised workers under the rule of law requires sustained
commitment. International experience suggests that a combination of measures is
needed: simplified compliance for micro-entrepreneurs, incentives (not just penalties) for
firms to register and provide social security, organization and voice for informal workers,
and stronger institutions to enforce basic standards.

In conclusion, India’s approach, anchored in a democratic and rights-based ethos, aligns

with international efforts in affirming that informal workers must not be denied labour
rights and social protection. Indian courts and policymakers have increasingly echoed
the language of “decent work” and “formalization” found in ILO parlance. Yet, much
like the global community, India is still in the midst of translating these ideals into reality.
The comparative lesson is that while international law provides the necessary framework
and inspiration, each country’s path, including India’s, is influenced by its socio-
economic context. India’s sheer scale of informality makes it a testing ground for
solutions; successes and setbacks in India hold valuable insights for other nations
grappling with similar issues. Conversely, as India modernizes its labour regime (for
example, experimenting with universal social security IDs for informal workers or large
public works guarantees), it contributes to the global repository of strategies that could
inform international policymaking on the unorganised sector.

Conclusion: Effectiveness and Way Forward

International efforts to address the unorganised labour sector have undoubtedly made
significant strides, elevating a once-neglected issue to the center of global policy and
establishing that the term “worker” includes, and must include, those in the informal
economy. Over the past half-century, the evolution from near-complete legal invisibility

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of informal workers to a comprehensive set of international norms and dedicated

programmes is itself a remarkable achievement. Many informal workers today enjoy far
greater recognition of their rights than their counterparts did a few decades ago: domestic
workers, for example, now have a dedicated ILO Convention and, in dozens of countries,
labour laws that explicitly protect them; millions of informal workers have been
incorporated into social insurance schemes through innovative policies inspired by global
knowledge-sharing; and the principle that fundamental rights at work apply universally
is firmly entrenched. The very inclusion of formalization of informal work as a target in
the Sustainable Development Goals (Target 8.3) reflects a hard-won global consensus
that the plight of unorganised labour is integral to the development agenda, not
peripheral.

Yet, measuring the effectiveness of these international efforts in practice tempers any
celebration with realism. The challenge of informal labour is so deep-rooted and
widespread that progress has been, by most accounts, modest and slow. Global statistics
31 show that the share of workers in informal employment has only edged down slightly in
recent years, from around 61% in 2015 to about 58% by 2024, which implies that at the
current pace, achieving “widespread formalization” remains a distant goal. In many
countries, legal reforms spurred by international conventions have not fully translated
into better lives for the majority of informal workers on the ground. For instance, a
country may ratify Convention 189 and pass a law on domestic workers, but if
enforcement mechanisms and societal attitudes do not change, domestic workers may
see little improvement in wages or working conditions. The persistence of gigantic
140 informal economies in South Asia, Africa, and parts of Latin America and the emergence
of new forms of informality in developed economies (such as gig/platform work) mean
that global efforts are constantly playing catch-up with evolving realities.

Critical analyses often point out a fundamental disconnect: international law tends to set
aspirations that far outstrip domestic implementation capacity. Many developing
countries face fiscal and administrative constraints, for example, hiring enough labour
inspectors, or financing social benefits for informal workers, that limit the immediate
applicability of international standards. In some cases, well-intentioned regulations can
even backfire, pushing vulnerable enterprises further into the shadows. The tension

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between protecting workers and preserving livelihoods is a delicate one; as the ILO itself
has noted, formalization strategies must be carefully sequenced so as not to simply
penalize the poor75. The example of India’s street vendors, who feared crackdowns under
city beautification drives despite new protective laws, or of small farms in Africa
struggling to meet sudden compliance costs, illustrates that formalization is not achieved
by legal decree alone. It requires broader socio-economic support, education, skilling,
access to finance, and a gradualist approach, to avoid unintended consequences.

International mechanisms have started to adjust to these realities. There is increasing

emphasis on incentives and capacity-building: the ILO and donor agencies now
frequently assist countries in creating simplified tax and registration regimes (so that
informal businesses want to register), and in developing micro-insurance products and
pension schemes tailored to informal workers’ needs (so that coverage can expand
sustainably). South-South exchanges of best practices are being facilitated, for example,
officials from countries that successfully extended health insurance to informal workers
(such as Thailand’s universal coverage or Uruguay’s monotributo scheme) are sharing
lessons with other nations. These pragmatic initiatives, while less high-profile than
conventions, are a crucial part of the international community’s toolbox and represent a
shift towards problem-solving on the ground.

Nonetheless, there remain structural issues that international efforts have yet to
overcome. One is the fact that much of the informal workforce is beyond the reach of
traditional labour institutions like trade unions. Despite growth in informal worker
associations, the vast majority of informal workers still lack collective voice.
International labour governance relies heavily on a tripartite model (governments,
employers, unions), and integrating the representations of informal workers into this
model is an ongoing project. The ILO’s inclusion of organizations like IDWF and
StreetNet in its deliberations is a positive step, but at national levels, informal workers’
participation in social dialogue is often minimal. Until unorganised workers can

75
Ravi Kanbur, “Regulation and Employment: When Can One Size Fit All?” (2009) 24(1) World Bank
Research Observer 47 at 55–56

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influence policies that affect them, by having a seat at negotiation tables or consultation
forums, policies may miss their mark or languish in implementation.

Another unresolved issue is how to address the external global drivers of informality.
Trade liberalization and global competition can incentivize firms to informalize labour
to cut costs; conversely, stringent international standards without development assistance
can burden emerging economies. International cooperation needs to extend to areas like
40 fair trade, responsible business practices, and development finance to create an enabling
environment for formalization. Encouragingly, aspects of this are emerging: the G20, for
instance, in its 2014 declaration recognized the role of fair globalization in reducing
informality, and the EU’s due diligence directives aim to hold multinational companies
accountable for labour conditions across supply chains, which could indirectly improve
informal workers’ conditions worldwide.

In evaluating effectiveness, it is also important to acknowledge successes in specific

domains. Child labour rates (especially in their worst forms) have decreased substantially
28 over the last two decades, in large part due to the ILO’s concerted programs and near-
universal ratification of Convention 182, many of those rescued children were in
informal work. Similarly, the fight against forced labour has gained momentum via
Alliance 8.7 and national actions, freeing thousands of people from modern bondage in
informal sectors from brick kilns to fishing boats. Social protection coverage, while still
inadequate, is slowly expanding: countries like China and Mexico have brought tens of
millions of informal workers into pension or health insurance schemes in the past decade,
aligning with ILO’s Social Protection Floors approach. These tangible improvements,
often supported by international technical advice or funding, suggest that when political
59 will and resources converge, the situation of informal workers can be improved within a
reasonable time frame.

Ultimately, the effectiveness of international efforts in the unorganised sector can be seen
107 as a glass half-full or half-empty. The glass is half-full in that the once prevailing
fatalism, the notion that nothing can be done about the informal economy, has been
dispelled. There is now a solid framework of international principles affirming that all
workers, regardless of labels, deserve rights and protections. There are islands of

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progress and innovation that prove informal workers’ lives can be bettered through
policy. The global community today monitors informal employment trends as closely as
unemployment or inflation, which is a testament to changed priorities. However, the
glass is also half-empty because the sheer scale of informal labour ensures that
improvements have not kept pace with needs. Most informal workers still toil in
conditions far from the decent work ideal, lacking security, often earning poverty wages,
and vulnerable to abuse. International conventions and programs are necessary, but not
50 sufficient, to alter that reality without stronger implementation at the national and local
level.

For international efforts to fully meet their objectives, a reinvigorated commitment is

required in the coming years. This includes greater resources for enforcement of labour
standards (e.g. investing in labour inspection and legal aid for informal workers),
imaginative use of technology to register and deliver benefits to informal workers (as
seen in some countries using mobile money or digital ID to include gig and casual
workers in social insurance), and continued empowerment of informal worker
organizations to hold governments accountable. The post-pandemic recovery period may
116 offer an inflection point: COVID-19 starkly exposed the vulnerability of the informal
workforce, prompting many governments to extend emergency support to unorganised
159 workers for the first time. Building on that recognition, the ILO’s human-centred
88 recovery agenda and the UN’s Global Accelerator on Jobs and Social Protection
(launched in 2021) explicitly aim to incorporate informal workers into social protection
systems and employment promotion plans on an accelerated timeline76. If these plans are
followed through, they could significantly bolster the effectiveness of the international
regime for informal labour.

In sum, international efforts in the unorganised sector have laid the necessary
groundwork and achieved notable advances in norm-setting, awareness, and pilot
interventions. The challenge ahead lies in implementation and scale-up. Bridging the gap
between lofty international standards and the daily experience of the street vendor, the

15 76
UN General Assembly, Our Common Agenda – Report of the Secretary-General (New York: United
Nations, 2021) 21

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day labourer, or the home-based seamstress will require unwavering political will at
home, backed by international solidarity and cooperation. The trajectory to date shows a
clear direction, toward inclusion and formalization, but also cautions that this is a long-
term endeavor. Chapter by chapter, this analysis has traced how far we have come and
how far we still must go. International law and institutions have proven crucial in lighting
the path and pressuring states to act; however, the true measure of their success will be
when the “unorganised” no longer stand outside the fold of legal protection. Achieving
128 that vision of decent work for all remains one of the paramount social justice tasks of our
time, one that will continue to test the effectiveness of international efforts in the years
ahead.

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