Raphael John-Lall
Workers’ activities specialist at the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Port-of-Spain office, Vera Guseva, believes that the standards the ILO establishes benefit not only workers but also employers in the world of business.
On December 4, Guseva spoke at a seminar entitled “ILO Agenda 2025. Implications for the World of Work” hosted by the Cipriani College of Labour and Co-operative Studies, Valsayn.
She explained how labour standards create a better business environment for employers.
“They create a level-playing field so that businesses compete on productivity and innovation and not on who can undercut wages or safety the most. And they also give governments, employers and unions a common language and reference points for laws, policies and collective agreements. Standards are negotiated in detail at the conference by tripartite committees and they often follow a double-discussion procedure when a topic is discussed in one year, revised and the brought back the following year for finalisation and adoption.”
She informed the audience that over the course of its history, the ILO has adopted 47 standards and from them, 192 conventions, six protocols and 209 recommendations.
“So, in 2025, the 113th session of the International Labour Conference focused on three big issues that are directly reflected in tonight’s theme and two of them were setting standards and these were protection against biological hazards as well as decent work in the platform economy and the third topic that we are discussing today is the outcomes of the general discussion on the transitioning from the informal to the formal economy.”
She recalled that an important topic for the ILO in 2025 was decent work in the platform economy.
She explained that the platform economy is work that is organised through digital platforms such as food delivery, online freelancing, care and cleaning apps as well as many others.
“And so, in 2025, the International Labour Conference held its first discussion in a double-discussion process to develop international labour standards on the issue. After intense debate, the conference decided in favour of preparing a convention supplemented by a recommendation.”
She added that the discussions focused on coverage and provides the definitions of digital labour platforms as well as platform workers to make sure that all the workers are covered and it ensures fundamental rights and protection, making sure that workers enjoy core labour rights such as freedom of association, non-discrimination, protection against child and forced labour and safe and healthy working conditions.
On the controversial topic of who is an independent contractor and who is not, she said the proposed standards also deal with making sure that the widespread problem of workers, who are effectively employees, but are classified as independent contractors and therefore miss out on social security protection, is addressed.
“It also sets the fair pay and working time social protection ensuring that platform workers can access social security on terms comparable to all the other workers.”
Informal economy
Guseva highlighted another important area of focus at the 113th session of the International Labour Conference, which was a general discussion on innovative approaches to addressing informality and promoting the transition to formality for decent work.
Globally, around six out of 10 workers and eight out of 10 enterprises operate in the informal economy without adequate legal protection of social security.
“Back in 2015, the conference adopted recommendation 204 on the transition from the informal to the formal economy. That was the first international standard to focus specifically on this issue. It sets out objectives such as facilitating the transition while respecting workers’ rights, promoting the creation and preservation of decent work in the formal economy because indeed to make sure that there is no backward transition and preventing the informalisation of formal jobs.”
She added that 2025’s discussion reaffirmed the importance of recommendation 204 and led to a resolution calling on countries to develop rights-based strategies for formalisation with strong emphasis on freedom of association, collective bargaining, social protection and targeted support for the most vulnerable workers and economic units.
“The informal economy includes street and market vendors, own-account workers, many domestic workers, some construction and agricultural workers and small family businesses. Informality often means low and unstable income, lack of social security and safe working conditions and no voice at work at all.”
She pointed that out it also represents resilience for these workers.
“Transitioning to formality is not about punishing informality. It is about extending rights, extending protection and providing better opportunities for decent work to the workers while improving productivity and ensuring fair competition between enterprises that pay taxes and comply with labour law and those that do not.”
Modern job market
Director of the International Affairs Unit of the Ministry of Labour, Rosa-Mae Whittier, who also spoke said the world of work has been transformed over the last few years and insisted that discussions and conferences out of the ILO need to reflect this.
“The world of work, I entered maybe 15 years ago where we were still sending faxes and those kinds of things is not the world of work of today. And international instruments need to reflect the contemporary world of work.”
She gave the examples of new types of jobs in the contemporary economy.
“You know many, many people find themselves employed on digital platforms. We know them. We probably use them. Uber you know and here with TT Ride Share. What are the food delivery apps? Those kinds of things. Food Drop. Down in south, we have Neighbourhood Munchies but they are digital platforms and the drivers and the riders who are bringing our food for us or who are coming to provide us with transportation they are providing labour via this digital platform.”
She said this is obviously and very clearly a new form of work and existing labour frameworks will not necessarily fully cover this new type of work.
“So that is why this agenda item to develop new international labour standards to govern the platform economy is extremely crucial.”
She also referred to World Bank data which shows that T&T has the highest number of platform workers in the region.
“And then also just to add that I did hear about some World Bank data that says that Trinidad and Tobago has the highest number of platform workers per capita in the region of Latin America and the Caribbean. I think that’s definitely something to chew on some food for thought.”
She made it clear that citizens who have businesses in the informal sector also have rights.
“And in terms of formalisation, certainly we can think of many people who don’t function in a registered business. You know, vendors on the side of the road at the traffic lights. These will be persons who are functioning in the informal economy and what we find is that there are often decent work deficits within the informal economy. What does that mean? That perhaps persons working in the informal economy do not have full access to labour rights and also social protection.”
At the same time, she emphasised that it is important for those in the job market to become part of the formal economy.
“So, this is why transitioning away from the informal economy to the formal economy is important because then we can protect those person’s rights more effectively. Also, it has been found that this transition can also promote increased productivity. Productivity can increase if we’re functioning in the formal economy as opposed to in the informal economy. So, actually this discussion this year on informality and formality was actually held on the 10th anniversary of having adopted that recommendation back in 2015.”
