BANGKOK (ILO News) -- Thailand’s increasing commitment to international labour standards comes up for discussion at a high-level workshop on labour rights convened by the International Labour Organization (ILO) at Bangkok’s Siam City Hotel on Friday morning, 12 February. The workshop responds to a call at a regional ILO symposium earlier this week from Mr. Sompong Amornvivat, Thailand’s Minister of Labour and Social Welfare, for "practical assistance, not only words" in resolving the present crisis in the region despite "still diminishing resources".

"Labour standards are not a part of the problems raised by the current crisis: respect for them is part of the solution", Mr. Kari Tapiola, Deputy Director General responsible for policies related to standards, tells participants. The workshop, attended by representatives of the Thai Government, workers and employers as well as non-governmental organizations, focuses on an innovative ILO charter on workers’ rights, the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, which was adopted last June without opposition at the International Labour Conference in Geneva. The Declaration proclaims that membership in the ILO carries an obligation to respect and promote the "fundamental rights" embodied in its core Conventions on freedom of association, forced labour, child labour and discrimination at work, whether or not a member State has formally ratified those Conventions. It also emphasizes the Organization’s duty to help member States give effect to the Conventions’ underlying principles.

Ms. Mitsuko Horiuchi, Assistant Director General Responsible for ILO Activities in Asia and the Pacific, opens the workshop at 9.30am. Moderated by Thai labour specialist Supachai Manusphaibool, the workshop is to hear an address from Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs M.R. Sukhumbhand Paribatra in the very week which saw his Government ratify the ILO’s Equal Remuneration Convention, one of the seven core Conventions.

That instrument seeks to ensure that men and women get equal pay for work of equal value. Its ratification brings the number of fundamental Conventions ratified by Thailand to three.

Hopes are strong among participants that the next step will be Thailand’s ratification of the Minimum Age Convention. To that end an intensive programme of cooperation with the Government is under way involving experts from the ILO’s International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) and top legal specialists