CIS   24481
CENTRO DE INVESTIGACIONES SOCIALES
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
Behind Institutional Diffusion. The Case of the ILO Domestic Workers Convention in Latin America
Autor/es:
POBLETE, LORENA
Lugar:
Londres
Reunión:
Congreso; Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics 27th Annual Conference; 2015
Institución organizadora:
Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics / London School of Economics
Resumen:
In Latin America, paid domestic work is very prevalent. It constitutes nearly 40% of the worldwide total, and is one of the most generalized forms of labor for women, representing 26.6%. The majority of these workers are informal workers (90%); thus, labor rights don´t apply, and workers don´t have access to social protection (ILO, 2013). In an attempt to achieve labor standards, the ILO approved a specific convention for domestic workers in 2011. This convention, C189, establishes some fundamental principles, such as freedom of association; the abolition of child and compulsory labor; and protection from abuse, harassment, violence, and discrimination. The convention also includes labor and social rights, such as limited working hours, monthly pay, a minimum wage, daily and weekly rest periods, annual leave, probation periods, termination terms, and access to social security. One particularity of this convention is that a large number of worker unions and civil organizations were part of the process ending in the final version of C189 (Goldsmith, 2013). One might say that this convention was made from the bottom to the top. Even considering that the ILO is a tripartite organization, not all conventions result from workers participation. This particular feature is crucial to understand the way this convention spreads, especially in countries in which domestic workers unions are strongly developed. Thus, the main goal of this paper is to understand the complexity of C189 diffusion process. It seems that there are two different kind of diffusion process involved: one is the formal process of approval, ratification and enforcement of the ILO conventions and, the other is a more complex process in which the ILO (through ILO regional offices) function as an orchestrator (Abbott, et.al. 2015). If there are a vast literature about the first type of diffusion process, the second one is still not enough documented. Our contribution of the study of the influence of the ILO in local regulations will be related to the analysis of this second process. Our hypothesis is that there are two configurations in which the ILO plays new roles in order to succeed the regulatory change. In the first case, the ILO (through regional offices) plays the orchestrator role, engaging different non-government actors in specific programs as, for instance, "decent work program". In a logic described as "manage states" (Abbott, et.al. 2015), with the ILO technical support, these non-governmental organizations become an important influence on public opinion and legislators. In the second case, the ILO establishes a partnership with some specific government agencies (as ministers and secretaries) for supporting local governments goals, and doing so, it promote their own specific ones. For instance, promoting formal labor for all categories of workers, the ILO can influence the regulation of a particular kind of workers as domestic workers. In the two cases, the ILO attains their goals supporting the activities of some intermediaries: non-governmental and governmental actors. Through the analysis of tree national cases (Argentina, Uruguay and Costa Rica), this paper seeks to understand how different modes of orchestration can be combined in a specific local context. Preliminaries analyses suggest that, notwithstanding the ILO regional offices constitution and their local involvement, the structure of labour market (specially domestic work sector), the existing labour regulations, the political agenda of the local governments, and, the strength of unions and social movements might shape the development of different types of orchestrations.