Conference Agenda

Existing literature highlights a bidirectional relationship between mental health and economic outcomes, where mental distress leads to reduced productivity, higher unemployment, and lower income, while economic shocks contribute to mental illness (Ridley, 2020; Killingsworth et al., 2023). However, research on employment quality and mental health remains limited, particularly for informal workers. This study seeks to bridge this gap by distinguishing subcategories of informal work, such as gig workers, home-based workers, and daily labourers while assessing multiple dimensions of employment quality. We hypothesise that informal workers are more vulnerable to mental distress and examine whether social integration (measured through employment status, job search methods, and workplace interactions) and productivity can mitigate this relationship. Additionally, we focus on vulnerable groups (youth, women, and the elderly) to analyse heterogeneous effects. Women in least-developed countries (LDCs) often dedicate a significant proportion of their time to unpaid care work, affecting their employment quality and mental well-being. In Thailand, demographic shifts have resulted in an ageing workforce and declining youth participation, contributing to volatile productivity growth (<3%) and rising youth unemployment, particularly among women (ILO, 2020). The unpaid care burden on Thai women further constrains their participation in the formal labour force (Bui et al., 2024).

Using secondary datasets such as the 2015 Mental Health Survey (MHS), 2015 Informal Employment Survey (IES), and 2015 Time Use Survey (TUS), this study explores the multi-faceted causes and effects of employment quality in the informal sector. We define informal employment based on the ILO (2013) and Thailand’s National Statistics Office standards, considering dimensions such as work status (self-employed, daily wage), work location (home, street, market), working conditions (continuity, accidents), work hours (irregular, multiple shifts), and social security (lack of benefits or insurance). Mental health outcomes are measured using two subjective well-being indicators: Life Satisfaction, measured by the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) (Watson et al., 1988) and Mental Health Distress, using Z-Score to standardise distress measure. We also construct the Composite Mental Health Score (Likert Scale Average), which assigns equal weight to all well-being factors to calculate a single mental health score to test for the robustness of our measurement. To address endogeneity, we use workplace entitlements (social security, benefits, and protections) as instrumental variables to control for unobserved factors affecting both mental health and employment quality. This study provides new insights into the intersection of informal work, employment quality, and mental health, informing policy interventions to improve workers' well-being.

This paper examines the experiences of content moderators in India and Kenya and the implications for their rights to a safe and healthy work environment. Content moderators play a pivotal role in monitoring digital platforms by reviewing and filtering user-generated content. Content moderation is outsourced by big tech to developing countries such as India and Kenya, however, compared to their counterparts in the Global North they earn significantly lower wages. Furthermore, these workers operate in conditions akin to forced labour and they are exposed to inappropriate, offensive and gruesome content that severely impacts their mental health.

Labour laws remain unequipped to protect these workers. For instance, Indian labour laws provide some general safeguards regarding employment rights, but there are no specific regulations addressing the psychological risks associated with prolonged exposure to harmful content. Similarly, the legal framework of Kenya provides health and safety safeguards but the dynamic of employment arrangement remains ambiguous thereby leaving these workers vulnerable. In both these countries, mental health concerns are stigmatised which further exacerbates the indecent working conditions of content moderators.

The absence of a clear legal framework, coupled with the unique mental health issues of content moderation, highlights the urgent need for socio-legal reforms. Using desk-based research, this paper highlights the mental health challenges that content moderators encounter and examines the legislative loopholes. Furthermore, this paper aims to develop a theoretical legal framework to facilitate a healthy work environment and psychological support systems for content moderators in India and Kenya.

Decent work is a term used to describe employment that respects the rights of workers and the fundamental rights of the human person. Ship-breaking refers to the dismantling of outdated vessels for the purpose of recycling their materials. In India, the Alang Ship-breaking Yard stands out as one of the most prominent facilities, recognized as the largest ship-breaking yard globally. In nations such as India, the ship-breaking sector is characterized by its reliance on manual labour and is regarded as one of the most perilous and accident-prone industries. Incidents and health-related issues are prevalent at Alang, where the working environment is severely lacking in safety both within and outside the yard. Employers impose the terms and conditions of employment, leaving workers with little choice but to accept them. This article aims to investigate the working conditions experienced by employees at the Alang ship-breaking yard and to evaluate the enforcement of various industrial and labour regulations in that context. The results indicate that 8 out of every 100 workers encounter accidents daily, while 9 out of 100 are susceptible to health issues at the yard. This ratio is alarmingly high for a recognized industry. Furthermore, it has been observed that the applicable laws governing the industry are frequently disregarded at the yard, leading to the exploitation of labour.

Climate change and frequent extreme weather events increasingly endanger the workforce, with forestry workers being no exception, particularly in developing regions. Many are employed in the informal economy, where access to social protection is more precarious than in the formal sector. Despite some progress, forestry workers continue to face a high risk of accidents, injuries, and health issues. As a fundamental pillar of decent work, access to social security is particularly relevant for forestry workers, which can lead to multiple benefits, including alleviating poverty and reducing inequalities. Effective policy formulation requires a comprehensive understanding of the current status of social security coverage at the sectoral level and its relationship to legal instruments for the governance of work. However, the existing literature on social security in the forestry sector remains limited, partly due to the difficulty of measuring the number of employed people covered by social security at a disaggregate level, especially when the sector is characterised by a high degree of informality. To fill this gap, this study examines the state of forestry employees covered by contributory social security, focusing on low to upper-middle-income countries of the Global South. It further examines whether correlations exist between ratifying International Labour Standards, notably the Social Security (Minimum Standards) Convention, 1952 (No. 102) and expanding social security among forestry workers. Share of employees with contributory social security in total forestry employees, derived from the harmonised microdata collection of the International Labour Organization, is used as a proxy indicator. Results reveal that approximately 30% of forestry employees in the country samples were affiliated with at least one contributory social security scheme. Low-income economies have the lowest average share of employees, with social security contributions at 7% of forestry employees. Middle and upper-middle-income countries, in comparison, show a larger share, with approximately 24 and 53% of forestry employees, respectively. A seemingly unrelated cross-country regression analysis reveals that the proportion of forestry employees covered by at least one social security scheme is significantly associated with ratifying Convention No. 102. This association is particularly pronounced in countries that exhibit strong regulatory quality and rule of law. Although ratification of Convention No. 102 may enable an extension of social security through national legislation, its effectiveness depends to a large extent on the institutional quality and the country’s capacity to formulate and implement sound policies and regulations.