Elevating labor concerns in small-scale fisheries: challenges to decent work in Peru’s jumbo flying squid fishery

Abstract

Despite growing attention on severe labor abuses in seafood production, questions remain about the broader range of challenges to decent work in the sector. Small-scale fisheries (SSFs) in particular have received relatively little attention from a labor-focused perspective. Motivated by this gap, this study elaborates a methodology to assess working conditions in SSFs across multiple dimensions of decent work, specifically through a case study of the artisanal jumbo squid fishery in Peru, a socially and economically important fishery in which working conditions are poorly understood. The findings highlight key decent work deficits in this fishery, including: inadequate coverage and lack of social protections; remuneration occasionally below the minimum wage; excessive working hours; increasingly longer trips in vessels that often lack adequate occupational safety and health features; informal employment relations and high turnover of crew, which are linked to safety issues (i.e., crew sometimes lack skills for this difficult work at sea); and fragmented fishing organizations with limited capacities for social dialogue. Many of the problems are rooted in or exacerbated by the broader governance context, especially widespread informality. The primary policy solutions being pursued are not labor-specific and are unlikely to address decent work deficits. Addressing these complex problems will require involving fishers—importantly, crew members—in efforts to drive improvements in the fishery and enhancing their capacities to lead in the development of solutions to the problems that affect them. More work is necessary to refine indicators and assess working conditions, but this work contributes towards advancing methodologies and highlighting the importance of studying labor in SSFs.