1. Work and Employment

Work can be defined as the carrying out of tasks requiring the expenditure of mental and physical effort with the objective of production of goods and services that cater to human needs. While Employment is a contract between two parties, where the work is paid for.

Worker is a person who enters into employment out of his own will. On the nature of employment, work can be of two types:

1) Formal Work: It is the work where the worker is governed by the formal rules and regulations. These rules and regulations may be defined by legislations or statutes of the government. All the public sector establishments and those private sector establishments which employ 10 hired workers or more are called formal sector.

2) Informal Work: It is the work where the workers are not governed by the fixed rules, but by the directions of employers. Unfortunately, in India, more than 80% of the workforce is in the informal sector where they have low social security. It includes farmers, agricultural labourers, owners of small enterprises etc.

Since informal sector is not regulated by the laws and statutes of the government, they are more vulnerable to exploitation. Their wages and tenure are not regularized. They can’t form trade union which minimizes their bargaining capacity with their employers.