An International Labour Organisation project covering four Pacific Island countries is aiming to improve the laws governing conditions for workers in the informal economy.
The ILO's Strategies for Decent Work Specialist, Laila Harre, says the Global Jobs Pact covers Vanuatu, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea and Samoa and aims to help those countries ratify four important ILO conventions.
She says one of those is the establishment of labour inspection services not only in the formal economy but also the informal economy.
"Where you have probably two thirds of Pacific Island people who don't gain their livelihoods from formal employment but from informal subsistence employment and often with major issues around health and safety, wages and conditions and so on in those work places."
Laila Harre says the project also aims to help the countries draft new labour laws by the middle of next year.
