More than half of workers globally are informal workers; operating in non-standard, temporary employment that is often, but not always, poorly paid and unprotected. The Decent Work Agenda (DWA), pioneered by the International Labor Organization (ILO), has been broadly adopted to bri- dge the concerns of workers and states by pursuing “Decent Work for all”. A core component of the DWA is the reduction of informality. Almost ten years later, however, informality is increasing in many countries. In this paper, I explore the conceptual foundation of the DWA by asking: how does the ILO understand “work” in their 2015 Decent Work Agenda? What are the consequences for those whose rights are protected within global governance projects? I compile a corpus of 36 ILO documents to demonstrate three interlocking discursive schemas: development, paternalism, and colorblindness. While the DWA progressively shifts regulatory discourses, its conceptualiza- tion of work constitutes informality as a condition of deviancy. This positions informal workers, who often occupy other vulnerable intersectionalities, as outside the scope of contemporary so- cial protections. Gender, race, class, location and more factor into the formation of global and national labor policies; achieving equitable conditions for all workers requires grappling with the complexity of informality.
Read full abstract7-days of FREE Audio papers, translation & more with Prime
7-days of FREE Prime access