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General conditions of work define, in many ways, peoples' experience of work. Minimum standards for working conditions are defined in each country but the large majority of workers, including many of those whose conditions are most in need of improvement, are excluded from the scope of existing labour protection measures. In many countries, workers in cottage industries, the urban informal economy, agricultural workers (except for plantations), small shops and local vendors, domestic workers and homeworkers are outside the scope of protective legislation. Other workers are deprived of effective protection because of weaknesses in labour law enforcement. This is particularly true for workers in small enterprises, which account for over 90 per cent of enterprises in many countries, with a high proportion of women workers.
Many ILO standards are applicable to these unprotected workers and the ILO has considerable information on their working conditions problems. Based on its research and projects, it has also developed practical approaches and training programmes for promoting positive changes affecting the least protected workers, including those in small-scale industry (Work Improvement in Small Enterprises — WISE), agriculture and the informal economy in developing countries. TRAVAIL is now using this experience to find new ways to expand the content, to adapt the methodology to other groups of unprotected women and men at work, and to forge more effective links with local partners so as to bring the benefits to a much larger number of workers and small businesses.
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