Notions of informal employment and precarious work to address quality of employment in Colombia

Authors

  • María Teresa Ferreira Sequeda Universidad Industrial de Santander

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15332/rl.v0i6.1449

Keywords:

Job insecurity, precarious job, informal employment, informal sector job quality

Abstract

In this article the concept of informality in Colombia is evaluated as to its accuracy to provide relevant information on job quality; in the light of multidimensional concepts of precarious employment and job security. The results show that the definition and measurement of informal employment taking place in Colombia remain insufficient to reveal the difficulties workers face in terms of precariousness. This paper proposes a conceptual and operational adaptation of precariousness. The results suggest that the main deficits on job security faced by the Colombian work force are in collective participation, protection against occupational hazards, employee benefits and pension provision. This study concludes that informality does not reflect the wide diversity of precarious work in Colombia, as the latter crosses sector and occupational boundaries of the formal-informal, as recently suggested by the academic debate.

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Author Biography

María Teresa Ferreira Sequeda, Universidad Industrial de Santander

Magíster en Estudios del Desarrollo. Estudiante del Doctorado en Economía, Universidad de Maastricht, Países Bajos. Profesora de la Escuela de Economía de la Universidad Industrial de Santander, Bucaramanga, Colombia.

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Published

2014-01-01

How to Cite

Ferreira Sequeda, M. T. (2014). Notions of informal employment and precarious work to address quality of employment in Colombia. Lebret, (6), 29–58. https://doi.org/10.15332/rl.v0i6.1449

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Articles