Workers in the informal economy

The ETUC (European Trade Union Confederation) in cooperation and IRENE and PICUM (Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants, Brussels), organises an international seminar to examine organizing and policy-making initiatives regarding a specific part of the (informal) economy: the provision of domestic services.

Domestic services for private households are provided by increasing millions of (mostly) female workers, many of them from migrant or ethnic minority background, in a situation of almost total absence of any (statutory or collectively agreed) protective framework.

The seminar especially addresses the need to develop innovative ways to reach out to these workers in the ‘shadow’ of the formal economy.
Some ‘best practices’ and relevant experiences on strategies and methods of trade unions on supporting and organising domestic workers will be presented and discussed at the seminar.

The seminar will also explore existing legal instruments on international, EU and national level, that could be used to improve the situation of domestic workers, and develop proposals to include domestic workers in basic employment and social security protection.

The seminar wants to bring together participants from ETUC affiliated trade unions from all EU Member States as well as the accession states Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey, and also participants from NGO’s that are active in organizing (migrant) domestic workers or advocating (migrant) domestic workers rights.