RURAL WORKER

Synonymes ou variantes : RURAL LABOURER
Équivalents : TRABAJADOR RURAL
TRAVAILLEUR EN MILIEU RURAL
Domaine : Worker

Définition

"Person engaged in agriculture, handicrafts or a related occupation in a rural area, whether as a wage earner or as a self-employed person such as a tenant, sharecropper or small owner-occupier."
(International Labour Organization (ILO), C141 Rural Workers' Organisations Convention 1975, visited 2009-08-29)

Contexte

"Increases in productivity and international competition are changing the nature of work in rural America. Job losses are mounting in communities where low-skill employment has dominated the economy. From 1997 through 2003, over 1.5 million rural workers lost their jobs due to fundamental changes in industries that have historically been the mainstay of the rural economy. The rate of this job loss is increasing as firms seek to lower their costs through automation and the use of cheaper labor outside the U.S. In rural America, workers in manufacturing were hardest hit—from 2001 to 2003, one in ten displaced workers were employed in manufacturing."
(Glasmeier, A. and P. Salant, Testimony on Challenges Facing Economic Development, 2007, visited 2009-08-29)

"While farming [in the USA] remains important as a source of jobs and income in many rural areas, it is no longer the dominant rural industry, and even for the remaining farm households, the nonfarm rural economy is a critical source of employment and income. Rural workers are employed in a wide range of occupations related to recreation, retirement, and natural amenities, as well as in the financial, insurance, real estate, telecommunications, and retail industries. About one in five rural workers employed in farming, forestry, and fishing held more than one job in 1996."
(U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Outlook, November 1997, visited 2009-08-29)

Description

Rural workers include: (Castro, M. and I. Graham, Land Distribution – Unions Push for Real Reform, ILO, 131-132 (2-3), 2003, visited 2010-08-29)

The rural economy is mostly built on the exploitation of natural resources and primary sector activities such as: agriculture, forestry, fishing, mining, energy, breeding, hunting, trapping. Additionally, rural workers may be active as artisans or within the manufacturing sector. These occupations may be a good source of revenue between two crops.

"The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service (ERS) estimates that 42 percent of rural jobs are low-skill. [...] Though the share of rural jobs that are low-skill is declining, the proportion remains higher than in urban areas, as it has been historically. [...]

Two important factors make it harder for rural workers than for urban workers to adjust to job loss. First, the local economy in rural communities often depends on one industry rather than the diverse set of industries that characterize urban economies. When the paper mill closes in a small town in New England or a textile firm moves its operations from the rural South to China, workers who lose their jobs have few, if any other, local job prospects. Second, even when there are other employment opportunities in rural communities, they often require retraining and skill upgrades but the training and education infrastructure is not as well-developed as it is in urban parts of the country."
(Glasmeier, A. and P. Salant, Low-Skill Workers in Rural America Face Permanent Job Loss, 2006, visited 2011-08-29)

Rural work is an area where non-compliance with labour standards and social security is frequently found. Indeed, general or special standards are difficult to apply to rural labour because of the following factors. In many countries, rural people are often unaware of the existence or content of applicable labour standards. Agricultural work is mostly performed by seasonal and temporary workers. They are not always declared by their employer and therefore not eligible for social security. "Finally, the state itself does not usually have at its disposal a labour administration capable of informing, assisting and inspecting agricultural enterprises which, as a sector, is a frequent user of child labour. Thus labour standards are not enforced, occupational safety and health regulations are not known and the failure to declare workers goes undetected."
(adapted from Daza, J., Labour Inspection and the Informal Economy, Labour Education, 140-141, 2005, visited 2011-08-30)

Relations sémantiques

Hiérarchiques

AGRICULTURAL WORKER
Immigrant rural worker
Landless rural worker
Rural tenant farmer
Rural wage earner
Seasonal rural worker
Sharecropper
Small owner-occupier
Temporary rural worker
Urban worker

Associatives

Rural work
Rural migration
C141 Rural Workers' Organisations Convention, 1975
Rural economy
Rural environment
© Jeanne Dancette