ILO Director-General, Guy Ryder meets workers' representatives and receives a petition

ILO Director-General Guy Ryder met representatives of Thai workers’ organizations at the United Nations on 14 December 2012 in Bangkok. The workers requested the ILO to encourage the Government to ratify the ILO Conventions concerning freedom of association and collective bargaining.

They also stressed their support for the finalization of Thailand’s Decent Work Country Programme, which will provide a framework for the ILO’s technical cooperation work with the government, workers’ and employers’ organizations in Thailand.

They highlighted the importance of expanding social protection and services to the workers in the informal economy and migrant workers, and raised their concerns on wage levels in Thailand, saying that these have not changed in line with the rising cost of living.

© ILO / V.Dithajohn

Photo from left: Tavee Deeying, President, National Congress Private Industry of Employers (NCPE), Tawatchai Phoncharoen, Director, Foreign Relations, NCPE, Chinnachot Saengsank, President, Labour Congress of Thailand (LCT), Guy Ryder, ILO Director-General, Sawit Kaew-wan, Secretary-General, State Enterprise Workers’ Relations Confederation (SERC), Phongtiti Pongsilamanee, Advisor, SERC, Tavee Techateeravat, President, Thai Trade Union Congress, (TTUC), Prachuab Phikul, Secretary-General, TTUC.

© ILO / V.Dithajohn

Mr Guy Ryder, Director-General, ILO receiving a Trade Unions' petition during his visit to Bangkok, on Friday 14 December 2012. The Unions were asking for his intervention to get some workers who had been fired in a labour dispute reinstated.

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