ECLAC organizes seminar on labor informality and presents UN-financed project
7 octubre 2021

LABOR

 Labor informality. On October 6 and 7 of this year, the International Seminar on Labor Informality organized by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) was held to address the challenges posed by technological change, territorial inequality and the imperative of social protection in the area of labor in the region.

At the event, the results of the project “Technological transformations in Latin America: promoting productive jobs and facing the challenges of new forms of informal employment” were presented. This initiative has been funded by the United Nations Development Account and implemented since 2018 in seven countries in the region (Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Mexico and Uruguay), by ECLAC’s Economic Development and Social Development Divisions and the Buenos Aires Office of the same institution. The project was initiated in response to the problem of labor informality, which is on the rise in the region and is a serious drawback for workers who should enjoy their corresponding labor and social rights but lack the minimum conditions for decent work: labor contracts, health coverage, pension contributions, among others.

The Director of ECLAC’s Economic Development Division, Daniel Titelman, said Covid-19 had deepened the region’s problems in 2020 in terms of economic inequality, unemployment, low investment and labor informality. In view of this situation, he stressed the importance of continuing with the project and the development of different alternatives to face the challenges of labor informality in the region.

He also expressed that the economic reactivation after the sanitary emergency will be of slow growth and it will be complex to return to the existing levels before Covid-19, which were already worrying levels anyway. As an example, in 2016, the International Labor Organization (ILO) estimated 53.1% of the region in labor informality.

Specialists concluded during the event that it has become of utmost importance to reflect and propose public policies to combat informality and its structural impacts throughout the region, especially in the pandemic situation we are going through.

Next steps

It is hoped that the reflections and proposals for measures made at the seminar on labor informality in Latin America and the Caribbean and in the ECLAC project will be considered by the countries of the region when creating public policies to address labor informality, inequality and the challenge of new technologies.

Based on the data provided by ECLAC, McDonald’s could use this information to continue contributing to the promotion of the importance of formal work. In addition, developing and strengthening (in countries where they already exist) youth employment programs or first formal employment.

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