Informal Employment in Yerevan. Hidden Workers
On April 3, 2013 a national tripartite workshop was held on the topic “Informal Employment” where the representatives of “International Labor Organization”(ILO), “Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs” (MLS), “The Republican Union of Employers of Armenia” (RUEA), “Confederation of trade Unions of Armenia” (CTUA) participated, as well as the representatives of other organizations.
The ILO focuses on the fight against the informal employment, which plays an important role in the "decent work" concept. With the support of the ILO, the experts of different public services implemented researches about the informal employment in Yerevan in the sphere of small and medium sized business sector. As a result of the research, the causes of the informal employment were discovered, and suggestions were made referring to further steps about events and projects, which will decrease the hidden employment and will promote the employers to move from the informal field to the formal one, that is to register all the employees legally.
Gagik Makaryan, the president of “The Republican Union of Employers of Armenia” thinks, that the cause of the informal employment is the small business being in the field of unfair competition, and therefore trying to survive somehow. Moreover, there is the psychology of becoming rapidly rich, which is also conditioned by unequal opportunities. So, tax legislation must create conditions so that the employer would want to implement his activities in the field of law, but not to force him to move into the field of law, which will bring to the rise of unemployment. Taking into consideration the fact that in Armenia macro and small business is 90%, it is necessary to provide them with tax privileges and plan further steps to eliminate existent corruption risks and economical monopoly, so that the businesses mentioned above could develop.
now in Armenia There is a tendency of informal employment growth and growth of working hours of the employees in that field. Informal employment is also promoted by the fear of personnel being fired. According to the experts, the shadow stuff is paid 10 percent less than its colleagues at the formal field.
Taking into consideration the desire of our country to join the European standards of "decent work” that has 28 criteria, Armenia needs, as the experts of ILO find, help from several departments to implement comprehensive measures which will lead to the growth of the formal employment and will make the employers move from the informal field the formal one. It is also necessary to improve the control over the work and the awareness of the employees in the formal field concerning the social guarantees.
Nana Heruni, the Managing Director of Tanger Recruitment company, Chair of Private Employment Agencies Sectorial Union of the Republican Union of Employers of Armenia also took part in the workshop.
