Labor
Labor policy and administration
Myanmar state of affairs worsening, ETI warns businesses
In a position statement, the ETI points to a Commission of Inquiry into the decline of workers’ rights in Myanmar established by the International Labour Organization (ILO) in March, noting such a move is the ILO’s highest-level investigative procedure which is generally set up when a member state ...
Hannah Abdulla
Striking casino workers stand against crackdown
Chhim Sithar knew she would be arrested when she arrived at the site of a protest organised by employees of the NagaWorld casino. Police violently grabbed and arrested the union leader when she attempted to join the demonstration by striking workers in Phnom Penh on 4 ...
JACK BROOK
Thailand Starts Factory Worker Vaccine Drive to Protect Exports
Thailand has launched a pilot program to test, vaccinate and isolate factory workers to limit Covid-related disruptions to its export-driven manufacturing industry, one of the few bright spots in an economy crushed by the virus. The “Factory Sandbox” initiative aims to protect 3 million jobs and ...
Randy Thanthong-Knight
ILO forecasts slow jobs recovery in ASEAN region
Working hours in the ASEAN region are projected to only partially recover in 2021 and 2022 according to new research by the International Labour Organization (ILO). COVID-19 and the ASEAN labour market: Impact and policy response highlights the heavy impact of the pandemic on ASEAN economies ...
KPL
Sex workers fighting for human rights among world’s most ‘at risk activists’
Sex worker activists are among the most at risk defenders of human rights in the world, facing multiple threats and violent attacks, an extensive investigation has found. The research, published today by human rights organisation Front Line Defenders, found that their visibility as sex workers who are advocates ...
Sarah Johnson
Migrant domestic workers 'need jabs'
Labour rights advocates have urged the authorities to vaccinate migrant domestic helpers to protect households against Covid-19. Adisorn Kerdmongkol, a member of the Migrant Network Group (MNG), told an online discussion organised by the House committee on labour on Monday that more than 100,000 migrant workers are ...
PENCHAN CHAROENSUTHIPAN
Forced labor: Thailand put on US human trafficking watchlist
Thailand has been downgraded by the United States in a global report on human trafficking because the Southeast Asian nation’s government “does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.” In its 2021 Trafficking in Persons Report, in which Thailand has been downgraded ...
UCA News reporter, Bangkok
OPINION: A year since the transient worker Covid crisis: Lessons for Southeast Asia
April marked the one-year anniversary since most countries in the world went into some form of lockdown to curb the spread of Covid-19. The pandemic first and foremost has exposed gaps in current labour practices towards low-skilled transient (migrant) workers across Southeast Asia, particularly in Singapore, ...
FANZURA BANU AND SHEE SIEW YING
Cambodian Unions and NGOs Call for Workers’ Safety to Combat COVID-19
Cambodian NGOs and trade unions called on Phnom Penh Wednesday to improve health and safety for workers in the country to combat its recent coronavirus outbreak, while the governments of neighboring Vietnam and Laos took precautions Wednesday to keep the virus from spreading within its ...
RFA’s Khmer, Lao and Vietnamese Services. Translated by Samean Yun, Max Avary and Chau Vu. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
ASEAN’s Migrant Worker Clusters
According to think tank, the Institute for Human Rights and Business, across Southeast Asia, an estimated 10 million migrant workers live and work in major destinations such as Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. Malaysia is home to around two million documented migrant workers, comprising about 15 percent ...
Athira Nortajuddin