A/HRC/20/15 regulation results in numerous insecurities and vulnerabilities for informal workers, such as the lack of collective bargaining and anti-discrimination protections. Further, informal workers are also often subjected to volatile, insecure work schedules and long hours. Many informal workers are involved in piece work, which encourages unsafe work habits and shifts the burden of responsibility to protect occupational health from employers to workers. Although there are some very high earners within the informal economy (such as self-employed professionals), the vast majority of informal workers come from marginalized backgrounds and work without adequate training, technology and health precautions for a small, insecure wage. Although not all persons involved in the informal economy are poor, and not all of the working poor are informal workers, there is a substantial overlap between poverty and the informal economy. 12. The informal economy constitutes more than 50 per cent of the economy in many developing countries.11 When the agricultural sector is included in assessments, in some countries the informal economy approaches between 80 to 90 per cent of the total economy.12 However, the existence of the informal economy is certainly not limited to the developing world; the informal economy also makes up a sizeable portion of developed economies.13 Studies suggest that the informal economy may be a fall-back or buffer during times of economic downturn, when the informal economy often grows.14 In light of the magnitude of the recent global financial crisis and subsequent recession, it is likely that the informal sector has grown substantially. As the informal economy has grown, so have its related occupational health concerns. Considering the size and nature of the informal economy, it is impossible for States to fully realize the right to health without addressing concerns related to occupational health in the informal economy. 13. Informal employment consists of both self-employment in informal enterprises and wage employment in informal jobs. Self-employment in informal enterprises consists of self-employed persons in small unregistered or unincorporated enterprises, including employers (who hire others), own-account operators (who do not hire others), unpaid contributing family workers and members of unregistered co-operatives. Wage employment in informal jobs consists of wage workers who lack social protection through their work and who are employed by formal or informal firms (and their contractors), by households, or by no fixed employer, including non-standard employees of informal enterprises, nonstandard employees of formal enterprises, casual or day labourers, and industrial outworkers (also called homeworkers).15 14. Many in the formal workforce find themselves in a situation similar to those in the informal workforce. There is a growing trend toward contractualization and informalization of formal work, a process by which workers become their own employers and thereby may lose occupational health protections otherwise afforded to them as employees. At the same time, many developed economies are systematically moving away from standard work 16– full-time, year-round, permanent wage employment with a single employer with adequate statutory benefits and entitlements –,17 leading to an increase in part-time, casual, 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 6 ILO, Women and men in the informal economy. ILO, “Statistical update on employment in the informal economy,” p. 12. ILO, Women and men in the informal economy, p. 26. Zoe Elena Horn, “No Cushion to Fall Back On: The Global Economic Crisis and Informal Workers,” Synthesis Report - Inclusive Cities (WIEGO, 2009). ILO, “General Report,” Report I, Seventeenth International Conference of Labour Statisticians Geneva, 24 November-3 December 2003, p. 51. ILO, Women and men in the informal economy. K.V.W. Stone, From Widgets to Digits: Employment regulation for the changing workplace (Cambridge, United Kingdom, Cambridge University Press, 2004).