Mission
The WPAU’s mission is to fight for Waste Pickers rights, lobby for the development of policies that shall improve infomal and undocumented workers' working conditions and advocating for rectification of waste pickers labor conditions. We work to expose the dangerous conditions under which we work with the big companies; lacking protective wear as the work is done by hand. We aim to provide for a platform to debate on garbage workers underpayment, imprudent medical attention and unarticulated work schedules. In the year 2008/2009, supported by the Norwegian Human rights Fund, WPAU embarked on a project to moblise membership, Human Rights Empowerment and Support to form peer groups. The project aimed at mobilizing and registering garbage pickers as members of the unio... (more)

Mission
The WPAU’s mission is to fight for Waste Pickers rights, lobby for the development of policies that shall improve infomal and undocumented workers' working conditions and advocating for rectification of waste pickers labor conditions. We work to expose the dangerous conditions under which we work with the big companies; lacking protective wear as the work is done by hand. We aim to provide for a platform to debate on garbage workers underpayment, imprudent medical attention and unarticulated work schedules. In the year 2008/2009, supported by the Norwegian Human rights Fund, WPAU embarked on a project to moblise membership, Human Rights Empowerment and Support to form peer groups. The project aimed at mobilizing and registering garbage pickers as members of the union in three garbage manifested towns where an alarming exploitation proportion of garbage collectors exists, and sharing information on mischief and problems garbage collectors experience in order to empower them. Human rights empowerment strategies were discussed during the registration process. Currently, funded by the Norwegian Human rights Fund, the WPAU is executing a project titled Lobbying the President of Uganda with reference to his remarks made on 1st August 2009 at State House regarding workers rights and poor working conditions in private businesses; follow up on Lobbying the Parliament and Human rights education to Waste Pickers and General office support. The project is lobbying for decent working conditions for the waste pickers, seeking to ensure economic and social protection of these disadvantaged populations. The WPAU has had the experience of advocating for social protection regarding informal economy workers of these categories. The proposed project would be manned by our project officer who has had experience working with human rights donor funded project for eight years. A consultant group shall be commissioned to tangibly manage and oversee the success of the workshop.

Social cohesion and decent work for all are high on the Millennium Development Goals agenda. Achieving full and productive employment and decent work for all is now a firm target under the MDG, confirming the international consensus on the importance of intervention on the labour market to improve the livelihoods of the poorest. The informal economy provides for the majority of employment opportunities in most developing countries. Generally, the informal economy is understood as all activities that are performed outside the formal structures that govern taxes, workplace regulations and social protection schemes. Following the conclusions of the ILO International Labour Conference in 2002, the informal economy can be understood as comprised by informal employment both inside and outside informal enterprises. It includes a wide variety of activities, enterprises and workers, different situations and employment relationships consisting of both self-employment in unregistered ventures and wage employment in jobs without social protection. Wage-employment of both formal and informal firms, subcontracted workers, wage workers for households (domestic workers), and wage workers with no fixed employer (casual day workers, include porters on buildings, garbage collectors, cart pushers, hawkers, women food kiosks, merchandise vendors, boda-boda(motorcycle) cyclists transport associations etc) all fall under the category of informal workers.

Working conditions and risks faced by these categories in Uganda are very diverse. They experience heavy workloads not commensurate with their age together with inadequate rest. They lack physical injury protection gear at work, experience long working hours, high level of health hazards and lack of social security usually accompanied with exploiting wages, lack of legal protection, physical, sexual and psychological abuse, and worst of all they have no bargaining powers to improve their terms and conditions of work. Undocumented workers’ jobs are poor remunerated jobs in Uganda with no fixed wages and no tenure of employment. Termination of service is often abrupt and unilateral and there is no acting government policy to save these marginalized populations. Informal employment here is normally casual, irregular or seasonal implying frequent changes of workplaces and employers. To a large extent women, and disadvantaged groups such as youth, persons with HIV/AIDS, persons with disabilities, and migrant workers are overrepresented in the informal economy. The right to Social protection is a relatively new theme in low-income countries, but it has recently received more attention in the international development debate, in particular in relation to mitigating the social consequences of the financial and economic crisis. The challenges are enormous. Most people in the informal economy either have no cover at all or have ‘not fully formed’ access to any social protection, less than adequate social protection coverage. According to the recent policy statements of the Millennium Development Goals, social protection stimulates the involvement of poor women and men in the economy and contributes to social cohesion and stability. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) is jointly with the World Health Organisation (WHO), leading a UN initiative to extend a basic set of social protection measures to all. This is referred to as The basic social protection floor and comprises access to basic and essential health care, income security for children, and some income assistance for poor and/or unemployed people, and income security via basic pensions for older and disabled people. The government of Uganda is usually slow or will rarely fully disseminate information on such opportunities to the beneficiaries even though they would be available in the country, the Waste Pickers Alliance will work towards the education of informal workers on their rights to social protection and the right to just and favorable conditions of work. The rights include remunerating all workers with a minimum and fair wage and equal remuneration of equal value without distinction of any kind, in particular women being guaranteed conditions of work to those enjoyed by men, with equal pay for equal work. Policies and actions should be developed to promote human rights of workers in the informal economy in order for them to better manage risks and shocks. Moreover, enhancing the productive potential of the informal economy through policies that realize their human rights can lead to a gradual integration into the formal economy. Whereas Supplying workers in the informal economy with appropriate support can contribute to increasing opportunities for people to earn their livelihoods in various working activities and to eradicating poverty.
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