The rampant spread of globalisation has had an enormous impact on the employment structure
in South Asia, which is increasingly shifting towards labour flexibility. The majority of the
working population in South Asia, accounting for the range of 66.3 to 93.4 per cent of the
work force, are in the informal economy with negligent security and protection. The contribution
of the informal economy to the GDP and employment has been tremendous, but the economic
returns to the large number of workers in the informal economy have been marginal, pushing
them into being the working poor, with little or no chance of improving their working and
living conditions.
Trade union organisations, as social institutions for change and as development partners,
have to, therefore, act not only as a warehouse to protect the deprived and marginalised, to
provide education and training and to network unionists, but also as an alliance to mobilize
solidarity, to facilitate collective actions and to increase the voice and representation of the
unorganised and informal workers (Ahn, 2004; et al, 2007).