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3 December, 2024Thai unionists have called on the EU and the Thai government to include ILO Conventions 87 and 98 in the EU-Thailand Free Trade Agreements to safeguard labour rights.
On 27 November, the ILO 8798 Convention Driving Network submitted a memorandum to EU representatives in Bangkok, joined by over 300 unionists to highlight the urgency of incorporating the Conventions on the right to organize and the right to collective bargaining. Sia Jampathong, member of the House of Representatives from the People’s Party and former president of Textile Garment and Leather Workers' Federation of Thailand (TWFT), also joined the submission of memorandum.
Prasit Prasopsuk, president of the Confederation of Industrial Labour of Thailand (CILT) and network coordinator, said that workers in Thailand have been denied the right to organize and collective bargaining for decades, which led to exploitation of labour and injustice at workplaces.
“The inconsistency between the Labour Relations Act and ILO Conventions 87 and 98, combined with restrictive laws and practices, has weakened workers’ bargaining power and has resulted in unfair wages, inadequate benefits and poor working conditions.”
This has resulted in unfair wages, inadequate benefits and poor working conditions, with employers exploiting the legal loopholes, frequently resorting to lawsuits to intimidate unionists. Between 2015 and the present, 1,371 unionists have faced court action by employers.
“If workers in Thailand are still unable to organize and collectively bargain, the resulting trade and investments will inevitably become mechanisms for perpetuating oppression, exploitation, and violations of labour rights in Thailand,”
said Prasit Prasopsuk.
Ramon Certeza, IndustriALL’s regional secretary for South East Asia, underscored the precarious state of unionization in Thailand, where only 1.3 per cent of the 40.5 million-strong workforce is unionized. The vast majority of both local and migrant workers lack adequate protection.
“Thailand’s unionization rate is not only low compared to other Southeast Asian nations but also falls far short of European standards. The Thai government must take meaningful steps, including ratifying ILO Conventions 87 and 98, to address the situation,”
Ramon Certeza said.
In a joint letter to the EU Commission in April, IndustriALL Global Union and industriAll Europe called on the EU to ensure that labour clauses stipulating the right to organize, and collective bargaining are part of the trade negotiations between the Government of Thailand and EU, particularly seeking a pledge from the government to ratify ILO Conventions 87 and 98.
“The European Union must use the leverage of its trade negotiations with Thailand to improve the fundamental working rights of workers in Thailand. It would be wholly unacceptable to conclude a free trade agreement without a strong Trade and Sustainable Development chapter, including the core ILO conventions. But based of experience with other ASEAN countries, even this would not be enough. We need to see concrete changes on the ground to ensure that these are not just paper commitments but really deliver of the values the European Union claims to espouse,”
said industriAll Europe general secretary Judith Kirton-Darling.