| Sumario: | The aim of this paper was to update the profile and the labor precariousness indicators of agricultural seasonal workers, establishing gender and migration considerations, to provide an overview and context for contemporary studies of the sector. A descriptive analysis was conducted based on data from the CASEN surveys, mainly 2017 and 2020. The profile results showed an increase and consolidation of the feminization of seasonal agricultural labor, particularly in the fruit sector; a relevant increase in the foreignization of the salaried worker population of the branch, with a preeminence of Haitian and Venezuelan population; a slight increase in the average age of seasonal worker women; and with more urban residence characteristics, for both, migrants and chileans. The precariousness indicators results showed unequal access to employment stability by sex, since women mostly have access to seasonal jobs, unlike men, just as it was a decade ago; less protection due to a greater informality in the agricultural seasonal worker population compared to the total salaried population of the country, being more prominent in migrants; which could be associated for agricultural seasonal workers, but even more so for those who are migrants, to a greater relationship with intermediaries; greater lack of social security protection of seasonal workers in relation to the total labor force; almost no union membership, which shows a structural barrier in terms of labor rights protection; and higher income poverty rates in the industry, confirming that having a job does not guarantee a way out of poverty, a situation that is more acute for the migrant agricultural seasonal workers population by 2020. Lack of protection, instability and deregulation would be part of the normalization of the precariousness of agricultural wage labor.
|