The South African delegation to the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) 103rd session of the International Labour Conference (ILC) currently underway in Geneva, Switzerland, has scored a major victory with the election of one of its own as the chairperson of the committee facilitating transition from the informal to the formal economy.
Virgil Seafield, is Chief Director for advocacy and statutory services at the Department of Labour. In his new role, he co-ordinates discussions and directs interventions by member states that will inform the outcome of processes to be followed in the transition.
He said the informal economy was significantly impacting the world of work, with as much as 40 to 80 percent of the labour force in developing countries working within it. He said increasingly, transition to formality has emerged as a priority policy agenda in developed and developing countries and new policy initiatives and approaches are taken in different regions that facilitate this transition through multiple pathways.
Seafield said the informal economy thrives in a context of high unemployment, underemployment, poverty, gender inequality and precarious work. He said it plays a significant role in such circumstances, especially in income generation because of the relative ease of entry and low requirements for education, skills, technology and capital.
He said it was worth noting that most people enter the informal economy not by choice, but out of a need to survive and to have access to basic income-generating activities. Seafield said the growth of the informal economy can often be traced to inappropriate and ineffective or badly-implemented macro-economic and social policies often developed without tripartite consultation.
He said evidence however, based on the growth experience of many developing and transition economies shows that sizeable informal economies can co-exist and be sustained in parallel with the expansion of the formal economy.
He said workers in the informal economy are characterised by varying degrees of dependency and vulnerability. “Women, young persons, migrants and older workers are especially vulnerable to the most decent work deficits in the informal economy,’’ he said.
He said it was common knowledge that workers in the informal economy do not pay taxes. He said breaking out of informality is increasingly seen as the principal development challenge across regions and being central to realising decent work and fair globalisation.
Like delegations from the more than 150 countries attending the conference, representatives of South Africa come from government, organised labour as well as organised business. The conference, which started on May 28, ends on June 12.
Contact:
Mokgadi Pela
Director: Media liaison
Cell: 082-808-2168
Virgil Seafield
Chief Director for advocacy and statutory services
Cell: 082 303 0298
