Informality and employment vulnerability: application in sellers with subsistence work

Abstract

OBJECTIVE To describe the origin, evolution, and application of the concept of employment vulnerability in workers who subsist on street sales.METHODS We have carried out an analysis of the literature in database in Spanish, Portuguese, and English, without restriction by country. This is a review of the gray literature of government reports, articles, and documents from Latin America and the Caribbean. We have analyzed information on the informal economy, social-employment vulnerability, and subsistence workers.RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS The concept of informal economy is dispersed and suggested as synonymous with employment vulnerability. As a polysemic term, it generates confusion and difficulty in identifying defined profiles of employment vulnerability in informal subsistence workers, who sell their products on the streets and sidewalks of cities. The lack of a clear concept and profile of employment vulnerability for this type of workers generates a restriction on defined actions to reduce employment vulnerability. The profiles could facilitate access to the acquisition of assets that support their structure of opportunities, facilitating and mediating in the passage from vulnerability to social mobility with opportunities. We propose as a concept of employment vulnerability for subsistence workers in the informal sector, the condition of those who must work by day to eat at night, who have little or no ownership of assets, and who have a minimum structure of opportunities to prevent, face, and resist the critical situations that occur daily, putting at risk their subsistence and that of the persons who are their responsibility, thus making the connection between social and employment vulnerability.

Alterações físicas autopercebidas nos trabalhadores migrantes informais venezuelanos em Boa Vista-RR

“…Os trabalhadores abordados neste estudo se apresentam em situação de alta vulnerabilidade, relacionada ao ciclo de vida profissional com longas jornadas e baixos salários 23,24 . A vulnerabilidade no trabalho se relaciona com elementos sociais por possuir uma forte conexão com a economia informal, dificuldade de acesso aos sistemas de saúde, refletindo em uma maior deterioração da saúde física e mental dos trabalhadores 25 .…”

Sanitary and environmental conditions related to food poisoning among informal street vendors in downtown Medellín, Colombia, 2016

“…Para el año 2018, el departamento de Antioquia aparece como zona de alto riesgo, con 35 brotes, representando el 55,6% de los casos 5 . Sin embargo, estos reportes no incluyen brotes diferenciados para trabajadores del sector informal, y aún menos para trabajadores informales "venteros", que venden sus productos en las calles y aceras de la ciudad, quienes pueden ser, de manera simultánea, consumidores y vendedores de productos alimenticios en vía pública, situación que evidencia un vacío en el conocimiento y la necesidad de generar información que aporte al mejoramiento de las condiciones de vida y de salud de trabajadores con empleos de subsistencia 6 . Además, estos trabajadores tienen un bajo nivel educativo y escasos ingresos económicos, situación que les dificulta tener condiciones de trabajo seguras 7 , que incluyan acceso al servicio de agua potable, refrigeración y cocción de alimentos, en el caso de aquellos que venden productos en vía pública, siendo éstas algunas de las condiciones importantes que se deberían evaluar para determinar la calidad de los productos y su potencial infeccioso para consumidores y para los mismos vendedores 8,9 .…”

Pressures received and generated by a group of workers with subsistence jobs in the center of Medellín, and how these affect their life and health

“…La informalidad laboral es parte de la respuesta social a la escasa oferta trabajo formal 2 . La Organización Internacional del trabajo (OIT) en cuanto al entorno normativo y la economía informal, refiere la importancia de implementar un cambio en la estructura de gobierno, donde las iniciativas colectivas, incluyan la participación de los vendedores, en este caso ambulantes, en la reglamentación y protección de sus bienes, prestando un bien común a la sociedad 3 .…”