Working in the Shadows; FIWON Organizes Vulnerable Workers, Calls for Support
Lagosreporter
Posted On November 19, 2020
By Gbenga Komolafe
Federation of Informal Workers’ Organizations of Nigeria (FIWON) is a platform that aggregates diverse informal workers’ organizations with a view to represent their needs and aspirations as well as strengthens their voice to improve critical development deficits in the informal economy in Nigeria, in the areas of socio-economic rights awareness and capacity building.
FIWON was launched in 2010 and today brings together over 170 informal workers’ organizations from over 21 states in Nigeria.
In the light of the extreme vulnerabilities suffered by informal workers in the wake of the recent lock down imposed by government to curtail the spread of the rampaging Covid-19 Pandemic, FIWON embarked on a Covid -19 impact assessment on informal workers generally but with special emphasis on the waste picking and recycling, domestic work and street vending sectors because of the special vulnerability and precarity of workers in these sectors.
Waste pickers and recyclers help in no small way to slow down the greenhouse effect which is making our climate hotter by retrieving wastes that would otherwise have been burnt and are important players at the base of every city’s waste management system. They also constitute an important component of the multi – billion naira waste recycling value chain in Nigeria.
Typically, even in the best of times, they suffer a lot of discrimination, abuse, indiscriminate arrests and material deprivation. The Covid-19 pandemic has further exposed these workers to many health risks as waste pickers are exposed to contaminants and hazardous waste materials, from fecal matter and medical waste to toxic fumes and chemicals. Our investigation shows daily income are as paltry as 500 naira to 1,800 naira daily.
Unable to work and without access to any palliatives during the lockdowns, at least 20 waste workers died in Lagos alone. It is also worthy of mention that even in the best of times, waste pickers are subject to constant fear of eviction from the waste dumpsites while the itinerant pickers are also subject to arrests and criminalization.
A positive development in this beleaguered sector is the emergence of a union of waste pickers, National Union of Scrap and Waste Workers of Nigeria, (NUSWON) which will help to further advocacy work in the sector.
Already, NUSWON has filed for registration and is making effort to compile a database of waste workers, have issued with I.D. cards and personal, protective clothing or P.P.Es towards better recognition and support for waste pickers.
The street vendors comprising peddlers, little shop owners, food, drinks and water vendors, cobblers, barbers, vulcanizers etc also suffer immense persecution in the hands of the state law enforcement agencies including the police, environmental task forces, local government staff etc while they are made to pay a battery of taxes and levies.
They also suffered a lot of hunger while rape of women including underaged and elderly women, was also reported apart from the constant illnesses suffered.
We also discovered that street vendors who tried to operate skeletally in their neighborhoods were harassed and sometimes arrested, during the lock downs.
The third category of workers focused on in the course of the recent surveys are domestic workers, many of whom, months after the lock-down have been eased, are not allowed to go home after work by their employers, thereby suffering perpetual lockdown despite the fact the Covid-19 menace has been tempered while government has eased containment measures including the right of movement.
This has meant many leaving jobs in the wake of school re-opening, so that they could prepare their children for school while those remaining at work and with young children that they cannot access, are constantly worrying about their children’s schooling. Domestic workers historically suffer low pay, physical and emotional abuse, long hours of work as well as unsecure work tenure.
While we recognize government effort to provide financial lifelines to vulnerable Nigerians in the wake of the Covid -19 challenge, we also want to point out the fact the various palliative funds are not easily accessed by informal workers.
Application processes are effected digitally through internet based apps that most informal workers cannot access. It would appear that there is a conflation of the micro end in the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) schema. While the micro end approximates the informal sector employing over 70% of the working age population in Nigeria, most government interventions are more appropriate for the small and medium enterprises and not the informal workers.
We therefore call for more simplified, informal worker focused financial interventions by state and federal governments that would be more easily accessed by informal sector, where these interventions are most needed.
Gbenga Komolafe is the General Secretary, Federation of Informal Workers’ Organizations of Nigeria, (FIWON), Baptist Academy Compound, Ikorodu Road, Obanikoro, Lagos State. Mobile: +234 708 560 1685. Website: http://www.fiwon.org.ng
