MAPPING PAPERS:DEVELOPMENTS & ACHIVEMENTS

1. MAPPING PAPERS:DEVELOPMENTS & ACHIVEMENTS TUC/PERC-FNV Project “CEE/NIS: Promoting rights of and representing workers engaged in informal labour relations” Prof. Krastyo Petkov Kr.petkov@unwe.eu

2. Point of departure • Sceptical attitude; • Negativism toward IE; • Lack of expertise; • Poor research and statistics; • Lack of sub-regional exchange of knowledge about IE and TU involvement;

3. Second year results • All national/revised mapping papers; • Sub-regional seminars/exchange of views; • Growing : -professionalism; -realism; -motivation/expert consolidation • Some old&new good practices; • Emerging national systems: Azerbaidzan;

4. Changing environment • More active social partners /but no real social dialog about IE/; • Raised public attention: especially to corruption, black labour market, illegal and transit migration etc. • EU new regulation initiatives; • Economic crisis; new pull&push factors for the IE in CEE; • IFI’s recent changes- see bellow…

5. Main analytical achievements • Better understanding of roots and nature of the IE; • More objectivistic and concrete evaluation; • Some national/branch surveys or observations; • Broader comparative analysis; • Weak point: Unreliable information- IE statistics show different levels /20 and 60% for the same country/;

6. Common explanations • IE is not inherited-it emerged in the transition period; • The role of the neoliberal model: “Deregulation effect”; • Specific international/institutional decisions: UN sanctions /Serbia, Montenegro/; • Push factor: international economic migration; • National government’s involvement /Montenegro/;

7. Typical forms- important for TU • Avoiding tax and social benefit’s payment; • “Envelope wages”; • Seasonal work; • Immigrant remmitances economy; • Corruption-interlinked with IE; • Political corruption concerning EU financing;

8. TU policies/limits • Changing environment: informal work culture, accepted by labour and capital; • Governments in defend; • Aggressive employers; • Hard core of IE: from informalization to criminalization; • Boom of self-employed; • Growing WCO involvement;

9. TU-new strategies • Pragmatic/dualistic approach: good and bad side of IE; /USA trend:” workers without borders”/ • Pressure on national governments /and EU/ for better regulations. Compliance culture; • Alliances with civil organizations; • Organizing and self-organizing: partnership approach / not necessarily membership/; • Informal LR: mainstream TU field;

10. Global Factors: Crisis, IFI’s, Labour Alliance • Crises /G - 20 meetings/: NE is not the focus; claim for more and better jobs! But-some IE decrease- due to lack of credits; • WB recent turns: Doing Business rejection -Labour Alliance: -ITUC positions; -Global unions: Proposals to Stiglitz • ILO-decent work agenda and crisis;

11. New options/new dangers for TU’s • Who pays the cost of crisis: flat taxis in the SEE / way back is difficult/; • Continuing social-transnational dumping / concession bargaining/; • Emigrant returnees; increased immigrant flows /pressure on national LM’s/; • Attention: new IMF “flexible” loans /need TU consulting role/; • Flexible regulation vrs. Deregulation; • Minimal wage and basic income approach to LM inclusion;

12. New times-new challenges • IE paradox: the more we fight UW- the more it grows; • Shift from individual and enterprise based IE to LM segments and family organized informal activities; • New division in the IE sector: • -designers/organizers; • -mediators/performers; • -executives/losers: immigrants; minorities; women etc.

13. New times-new ideas • Alternative classification to the WB Doing business: ILO country ranking of CLS implementation; • ILO-part of G-20; • E U I E “Knowledge Bank”, set up by Dublin Foundation; • Diverse polices: shift from penalties to preventive, curative, fostering measures; • “Workers without borders” initiative