ILO strengthens migrant workers’ access to labour rights and social protection in Thailand

© SERC Foundation

© SERC Foundation

RAYONG, Thailand (ILO News) – Migrant workers in Thailand’s rubber, agriculture and manufacturing sectors are gaining stronger knowledge of labour rights and social protection through a series of trainings, workshops and legal support activities by the International Labour Organization (ILO), together with the State Enterprise Workers’ Relation Confederation Foundation (SERC Foundation). This work forms part of the ILO’s Responsible and Inclusive Supply Chains for Migrant Workers in Thailand (RISC-Migrant) initiative, supported by the Embassy of Japan in Thailand and the Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Since 2025, the collaboration has reached vulnerable migrant workers in plantations, factories, workers’ accommodation sites and farming communities across Rayong, one of the EEC provinces. Activities have focused on improving understanding of social security registration, labour rights at work, occupational safety and health, freedom of association, collective bargaining, and access to grievance and complaint mechanisms. The initiative has also helped connect workers with lawyers and social security representatives when concerns required follow-up.

Over 10 focus group discussions, directly reaching a total of around 270 workers, brought together migrant workers from different sectors and locations. These discussions helped workers better understand their rights while also strengthening mutual support among migrant worker communities. They also revealed major protection gaps, including low awareness of labour rights and social security entitlements, difficulties in verifying contribution records, risks of document confiscation, and limited access to complaint channels.

Workshops held in September and October 2025 brought together workers to discuss workplace rights, social security and key labour protection principles. The sessions covered freedom of association and collective bargaining, labour rights in the workplace, and the importance of social security protection for migrant workers in Thailand’s manufacturing sector. In some cases, workers learned for the first time how to access online social security channels to review their status, verify whether contributions had actually been made, and identify their designated hospitals under the social security system.

One important highlight was the training that reached 120 workers from pineapple and cassava farms, including refugee workers who had recently left refugee camps and entered employment for the first time, which was conducted in February 2026. For many of them, this was their first experience of work outside the camps and their first opportunity to learn about basic labour rights. As Thailand faces labour shortages, including as some Cambodian workers return to their home countries, the government has allowed refugee workers from camps along the Thai-Myanmar border to take up employment in different parts of the country. In this context, the project played an important role in reaching these newly employed workers and equipping them with essential knowledge of labour rights and protections at the start of their working lives.

This effort reflects the ILO’s wider work to strengthen responsible and inclusive supply chains for migrant workers in Thailand, including in the rubber sector, where migrant workers play an essential role across plantations, processing and manufacturing. By combining rights awareness, worker organizing, legal empowerment and dialogue with institutions, the approach helps migrant workers gain access to protection in practice, not only in law.