Worker rights

With easing tension over labour issues in Thailand, the fishery industry expects exports of seafood products to grow by 2-3 per cent this year after a slight drop in the first half. Moreover, private enterprises expect the European Union to cancel its “yellow card” on ...

The International Labor Organization said conditions in Cambodia’s garment factories have improved since it resumed identifying labor infractions at specific factories two years ago but noted significant ongoing problems in a report released on 1 July. The latest Synthesis Report, produced by the ILO’s Better Factories ...

The International Labour Organization will conduct research into the experiences that Myanmar migrant workers have faced abroad and how the country benefits after they return home, according to the UN agency. The research will start next month in locations that send the most labourers abroad – ...

The Thai government has sacked six officials in the town that State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi visited last week. On the day Daw Aung San Suu Kyi visited Mahachai’s seafood market, Myanmar migrant workers accused local authorities of manipulating the arrangement so that only ...

Foreign investment and the livelihoods of thousands of construction workers have been put at risk by the Yangon Region government’s decision to suspend all construction, developers say. Developers of hundreds of high-rise buildings now under construction in Yangon Region were forced to suspend building work on ...

The ASEAN Community, which took effect at the end of last year, has expressed concern about the movement of skilled workers around the region. But its interest in the unskilled labour remains poor, despite the fact that this group provides the real workforce that dominates ...

President of the Lao Federation of Trade Unions, Mr Pan Noymany, highlighted the issue at the 2nd Validation Forum on ASEAN Minimum Labour Standards held in Vientiane on 26 May having reaffirmed its commitment to work with the trade union organisations of ASEAN countries to share experiences ...

Protestors from a plywood factory in the Sagaing Industrial Zone resumed their march to Naypyidaw on 12 May, following five days of negotiations in the capital and Wundwin Township, where they rested, with no results. The workers said negotiations between the protestors, the factory and the ...

The 9th Meeting of the Asean Committee on the Implementation of the Asean Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers opened in Vientiane on 10 May. The meeting was organised by the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare. Participants also discussed the ...

Over 1 million temporary passport holders in Thailand will not be allowed to renew their expiring residency documents, issued between 2009 and 2013 as part of a national verification process. Instead, they are being told to forfeit their legal status, and apply for “pink cards” that ...