Informality and labor reforms in Ecuador in the decade 2007-2017 : Before and after?

Since 2007, in Ecuador with the arrival of the government of former president Rafael Correa a clear agenda to formalize long-time existing precarious work modalities and labour relations was established. Along the period, six were the important enacted reforms, policies and actions that targeted informality within the formal and informal sector for salaried, own account, domestic and home workers. Reforms indeed achieved to some extent to decrease informality (by means of extending social security affiliation coverage and granting more permanent working modalities). However, in the long run informality stagnated and reforms were no longer effective. This paper explores the characteristics of informal employment and informal sector in Ecuador and the factors that refrained informality from decreasing further than expected, with the positions that both employers and workers held towards the formalization process. The study conducted desk research and first-hand interviews with workers from labour union organizations, employers from the economic sectors of agriculture, flower sector, construction, textiles, industrial manufactures and electrical appliances; and employment consultants. The research´s outcomes show that informal employment and informal sector´s characteristics are similar to other cases studied worldwide, with low education, mostly concentrated in non-agricultural activities, worker´s age average from 25 to 44 years etc. Nevertheless, informality holds a more elastic nature and the stagnation obeys to deeper constraints and new ways of “bending the law” that employers figured to comply partially with reforms. Reforms departed with initial great expectations from workers, nonetheless, at the end both employers and workers agree that reforms were inefficient and imposed. In this context, policy makers have a challenge and key role for further labour policy design.