Training for Thai Trade Unions on International Labour Standards, Organizing and Collective Bargaining
The workshop aims at strengthening young Thai trade unionists' capacities for promoting international labour standards in labour policies, utilizing ILO’s Supervisory mechanism (on FoA in particular) and take initiatives for organizing, collective bargaining and effective representation of workers interest in social dialogue fora.
Thailand is an export oriented middle income country, with low wage workers. In recent years, political changes and uncertainties combined with slowdown in global economy & declining investments, have posed a number of development challenges. Economic growth has been accompanied by rising social and income inequalities, growth of informal-unorganized sectors and precarious work for majority of the workers. On labour market front, it also faces labour shortages and depends on migrant workers whose conditions of work need major improvements. In other words, growth has not been creating conditions for decent work for most workers.
Organizing workers and collective bargaining is one of the fundamental ways through which workers organizations seek to promote decent work for all. But this is a task that is not easy in Thailand due various reasons, including restrictive labour laws, resistance from employers and weaknesses in the labour law enforcement machinery. As matters stand, Government’s data shows that less than half percent of private enterprises in Thailand had unions (2015).
At the same time, a number of challenges face workers and unions – workers organizations have often reported anti-union discrimination, judicial harassment and other practices that create difficulties in the exercise of the rights to organize and collective bargaining. Serious labour rights abuses against migrant workers have also been reported in the newspapers and not just in Thai commercial fishing and seafood processing industries. Unions have also been expressing concern at the declining effectiveness of tripartite bodies and social dialogue in addressing labour policy issues such as privatization, outsourcing of labour, violations of working hours and minimum wages regulations, to name just few of the problems.
Thailand is yet to ratify ILO Conventions on Freedom of Association (No. 87), or the Collective Bargaining Convention (No. 98), despite Thai trade Unions long-standing demand and public commitments of the Government. For the trade union movement, it is vitally important that the Freedom of Association and the Right to Collective Bargaining is promoted and upheld by Government policy – for this creates the conditions for workers to organize, share in the gains of growth and promote decent work for workers, including through greater compliance with labour laws.
To meet its development challenges, Thailand needs to pursue inclusive growth policies. The country needs not only greater public & private investments, improvements in public services and policies that stimulate domestic consumption but also better labour standards and enforcement of labour laws. It is not just a matter of workers’ rights, but also one of the major means for promoting inclusive growth.
This training workshop therefore aims to strengthen the knowledge base of young Thai unionists on the role of International Labour Standards in promoting decent work, principles of FoA & CB and utilizing ILO’s Supervisory mechanism for defence of FoA rights. It will also be an opportunity to share experiences on management policies, organizing and collective bargaining in Thailand and plan for follow up initiatives by participants for organizing workers in unorganized sectors and collective bargaining in the organized sector.
Organizing workers and collective bargaining is one of the fundamental ways through which workers organizations seek to promote decent work for all. But this is a task that is not easy in Thailand due various reasons, including restrictive labour laws, resistance from employers and weaknesses in the labour law enforcement machinery. As matters stand, Government’s data shows that less than half percent of private enterprises in Thailand had unions (2015).
At the same time, a number of challenges face workers and unions – workers organizations have often reported anti-union discrimination, judicial harassment and other practices that create difficulties in the exercise of the rights to organize and collective bargaining. Serious labour rights abuses against migrant workers have also been reported in the newspapers and not just in Thai commercial fishing and seafood processing industries. Unions have also been expressing concern at the declining effectiveness of tripartite bodies and social dialogue in addressing labour policy issues such as privatization, outsourcing of labour, violations of working hours and minimum wages regulations, to name just few of the problems.
Thailand is yet to ratify ILO Conventions on Freedom of Association (No. 87), or the Collective Bargaining Convention (No. 98), despite Thai trade Unions long-standing demand and public commitments of the Government. For the trade union movement, it is vitally important that the Freedom of Association and the Right to Collective Bargaining is promoted and upheld by Government policy – for this creates the conditions for workers to organize, share in the gains of growth and promote decent work for workers, including through greater compliance with labour laws.
To meet its development challenges, Thailand needs to pursue inclusive growth policies. The country needs not only greater public & private investments, improvements in public services and policies that stimulate domestic consumption but also better labour standards and enforcement of labour laws. It is not just a matter of workers’ rights, but also one of the major means for promoting inclusive growth.
This training workshop therefore aims to strengthen the knowledge base of young Thai unionists on the role of International Labour Standards in promoting decent work, principles of FoA & CB and utilizing ILO’s Supervisory mechanism for defence of FoA rights. It will also be an opportunity to share experiences on management policies, organizing and collective bargaining in Thailand and plan for follow up initiatives by participants for organizing workers in unorganized sectors and collective bargaining in the organized sector.