Worker rights

As the Thai economy is heavily impacted by government attempts to control the COVID-19 outbreak, experts believe that the situation for migrant workers may contribute to the epidemic. Proper policies and employment support are needed to set things right. It has been 2 weeks since Rachen ...

Academics say Thailand has not been adequately protecting workers’ rights – both Thai and foreign – and though there is some improvement, existing laws and regulations still limit their rights. Their comments came after the US Trade Representative (USTR) announced last week that President Donald Trump ...

About half the population of the Asean region live in rural areas and suffer from a shortage of quality jobs and underemployment. In addition, rural people lack training opportunities in line with the needs of the labour market and suffer from the traditional exclusion of ...

Countries across Asean are experiencing rapid economic growth, and the associated improvements to the standard of living are conspicuous. Increasing trade means increasing wages — and wage growth is integral to the growth of regional economies. Keep reading ...

Oxfam has indicated that Cambodia ranked 121 out of 157 countries in this year’s inequality index, a drop when compared to last year’s position of 111 out of 152 countries. The Commitment to Reducing Inequality Index 2018 said Cambodia’s current ranking is attributed to poor ...

The governor of Lao province Champasak, Bounthong Divixay, said that until Monday, the water level of the Mekong River is 49 centimeters above the warning line and over a hundred villages around the province are flooded, including 24 villages of the province’s capital city Pakse, ...

Migration within Southeast Asia is expected to increase as the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) continues to promote freer movement of skilled workers across the region. Better labour mobility will help create a highly integrated and cohesive ASEAN economy. But there are barriers to migration within ...

Hundreds of workers took to the streets in Myanmar on Tuesday to call for a living wage, while in Laos marchers asked for social welfare benefits and better protection for citizens working abroad, sources said. Meanwhile, in Cambodia, workers gathered but were forbidden to ...

This working paper examines whether legal labour migration schemes can be opened to humanitarian migrants who may otherwise become targets for migrant smugglers. Keep reading ...

The January 2 decision by the National Committee for Designating Minimum Wage to increase the minimum wage has left many dissatisfied, particularly within the garment sector. []In Thailand, Malaysia, and Vietnam, the garment sectors are about six times more productive than in Myanmar, while Cambodia and ...