Govt denies labour abuses after ILO complaint, Reuters

The government is defending its labour record after a global labour union with 50 million members filed a complaint against Thailand at the International Labour Organization in Geneva.

The complaint from IndustriALL, sent to the ILO’s committee on freedom of association, details 18 cases of worker and labour abuses, the union said in a statement.

“IndustriALL, which has seven affiliate trade unions in the country, accuses the Thai government of failing to protect its workforce of 39 million workers, nearly half of whom are employed in the informal sector,” it said.

Government spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd said the complaint was not true.

“The Thai government has always given importance to the country’s workforce. We’ve organised the foreign and local workforce to ensure equal rights so that there are no abuses,” Maj Gen Sansern told Reuters.

“The complaint by IndustriALL is not true,” he added. “This government is very serious about not abusing the workforce, especially in terms of the fisheries industry.”

Labour abuses in the Thai fishing industry are well-documented.

IndustriALL said Thailand failed to guarantee the rights of freedom of association and collective bargaining to about 75% of the workforce, leading to it having the lowest unionisation rate in Southeast Asia at 1.5%.

“Thailand is a hub in the global supply chain for many multinational companies. The government must do more to protect its workers, who are the backbone of the economy,” IndustriALL’s general secretary, Jyrki Raina, said in the statement.

“Likewise, multinational companies must not allow worker violations at their suppliers and subsidiaries in Thailand just because they can get away with it.”

More than 200 people submitted a letter to Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha outside his Bangkok offices on Wednesday demanding stricter labour laws and better compensation.

“Workers are frequently sacked for being trade unionists or trying to bargain collectively,” the union statement said.

“In cases where the courts have ordered workers to be reinstated, companies often ignore the ruling or put intolerable pressure on workers to quit. In other instances, court proceedings drag on for so long that the workers are forced to accept a payout and resign.”

IndustriALL helped create the landmark Accord on Fire and Building Safety after Bangladesh’s Rana Plaza garment factory complex collapsed in April 2013, killing at least 1,130 people.

The legally binding accord, signed by more than 150 apparel companies and trade unions, requires factories to have independent safety inspections with the results made public.

The environmental group Greenpeace on Monday urged Thai Union Group Pcl, the world’s largest manufacturer of canned tuna, to rid its supply chains of destructive fishing practices.

Since 2014, the United States has put Thailand on the bottom-ranked Tier 3 in its annual Trafficking in Persons report.

The US State Department said in its 2015 TIP report some Thai and migrant workers were subjected to forced labour on Thai fishing boats with some remaining at sea for several years or paid very little, or they were threatened or beaten.

By Reuters
Published on 7 October 2015