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Honorable
Khun Sorraat Klinprathum- Minister of Labour, Officials of the Ministry of
Labour, Participants, Invited guests and colleagues from the ILO.
On
behalf of the ILO let me join the Ministry of Labour and welcome you all
to this important seminar.
Also
it is a pleasure for me to speak at the opening of this event.
The
plight of the workers in the informal economy is of much importance to the
ILO. About 70% of the workers in
Thailand
are in the informal
economy. This is according to the National Statistics Department. These
are what we consider as a vulnerable group of workers. In most cases they
are deprived of their basic labour rights. They are denied their right to
decent work.
As
promoted by the ILO decent work is about the enforcement of the core
labour rights; it is about the right to employment and income earning; it
is about the right to social protection. And it is about the right to form
association and the right to bargain collectively.
As a
means to provide protection to this group of workers the ILO works with
many governments to expand provisions of labour protection to workers in
the informal economy. The ILO
project on informal economy that is implemented in
Thailand
,
Cambodia
and
Mongolia
is another attempt to
support the project partners to help them extend protection to these
workers.
We
are very glad to recognize that
Thailand
is one of a few countries
which have made several efforts to provide protection to these labours.
They have been working in this regard since 1997. While we think that
there is still much room available for the improvement of the regulation
to provide better protection to workers; the two Ministerial Regulations
developed to provide protection to home-workers and agricultural workers
are considered to be steps taken in the right direction. Both the
ministerial regulations are now in effect. However it is important that
they are enforced. This is one
of the reasons for us to get together here today. We are here to consider
ways and means of enforcing the regulations. This is a challenge for the
labour officers as well as the workers and employers engaged in
agriculture and also to those home-workers.
On
behalf of the ILO, I would like to express our sincere support to your
important work. We are certain
that your efforts will benefit home-workers and agricultural workers. They
had been neglected in the past.
ILO
is honored to co-host this seminar.
This marks a very important step of the Thai government to extend labour
protection to workers in the informal economy. We are glad to be part of
this event. I ensure you of ILO support in the future and we would like to
follow up on this seminar.
I
wish this seminar a success. I would like to wish you all the best in the
challenging work ahead in your efforts to protect those workers. Thank
you.
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