For Immediate Release: 21st September 2010

Migrant Workers Must Be Protected and the

Thai Government Must Comply with ILO Convention
19
For more detailed information regarding this press release, please
contact:
• Sawit Keawan (Secretary General, SERC): +66 863 361110 (Thai only)
• Andy Hall (Advisor to HRDF/Translator for Mr. Sawit Keawan): +601 637
17013 (English/Thai)
• Hsein Htay (HRDF’s Migrant Justice Programme): +66 830 139736
(Burmese/Thai)

The Royal Thai Government (RTG) ratified the International Labour Organisation’s
(ILO) Equality of Treatment [Accident Compensation] Convention 1925 (C-19) on
5th April 1968. C-19 requires each member state of the ILO that ratifies this
Convention to grant to nationals of any other member states which have also
ratified this Convention and who suffers personal injury due to industrial
accidents happening in its territory the same treatment in respect of work
accident compensation as it grants to its own nationals. This equality of
treatment shall be guaranteed to all migrant workers without any condition as to
residence. Myanmar also ratified ILO C-19 in 1927.

Migrant workers from Myanmar (and their dependents) who suffer accidents or
are killed at work in Thailand continue to be officially denied access to rights and
protection from the Workmen’s Compensation Fund (WCF) however. Officials
justify this denial of fundamental rights to migrants on numerous grounds, all of
which reveal discriminatory treatment against these migrant workers when
compared with protection provided to Thai workers who can access the WCF.
This policy of the RTG to deny migrant access to the WCF clearly breaches
Thailand’s obligations as a signatory to ILO C-19.

The State Enterprise Workers Relations Confederation (SERC), the Thai Labour
Solidarity Committee (TLSC) and the Human Rights and Development Foundation
(HRDF) have utilized the Nang Noom Mae Seng test case as a central part of our
campaign to show most clearly the impact of the RTG’s denial of WCF rights to
migrant workers from Myanmar, and in our attempt to pressure the RTG to
adhere to C-19. But officials of the RTG continue to ignore this campaign and our
demands. SERC, as an affiliate to the International Trade Union Confederation
(ITUC), therefore petioned the Director of the ILO’s International Labour
Standards Department on this issue during the 98th Session of the International
Labour Conference (ILC) in Geneva, Switzerland. The RTG’s adherence to C-19
was duly considered by the ILO’s Committee of Experts on the Application of
Conventions and Recommendations and the Committee issued a report during
the 99th Session of the ILC requesting the RTG to urgently adhere to its
obligations as a signatory to C-19.

Over 2 million migrants from Myanmar are one of the most exploited and
vulnerable groups in Thai society working in more dangerous, dirty and difficult
conditions to other workers from which they frequently incur work accidents and
disease. Many of these workers have also fled deep political and economic
conflict in their homeland. HRDF alone has documented over 200 Myanmar
migrants’ work accidents in the past few years and this is from their work in only
two of Thailand’s 77 provinces. Although official statistics are unavailable, it
would not be unreasonable to estimate that thousands of migrants from
Myanmar incur work accidents each year in Thailand and many more suffer or
will in the future suffer work diseases. All are denied access to work accident
compensation from the WCF.

The RTG seems to have decided that setting up a separate work accident
compensation fund or setting up a private insurance scheme to provide
insurance to these migrant work accident victims is the solution to address
challenges posed by their failing to access work accident compensation. Such a
scheme would be managed by private companies with adjudication on
compensation conducted by WCF officials. Neither SERC nor representatives of
migrants from Myanmar were consulted on these plans.

SERC considers that plans to set up a separate and privately managed fund or
insurance scheme to provide accident, sickness, disability and death
compensation benefits to migrant work accident victims from Myanmar (and
their dependents) is a worrisome development because it appears that the RTG
is abandoning the principle of providing non-discriminatory access to the WCF.
There are allegations, which have not yet been confirmed given the opaque and
non-participatory nature of the decision making process surrounding these plans,
that suggest benefits to be received by migrants under such schemes may be
less than those received by Thai work accident victims through the WCF. SERC
considers such planned measures are illegal under the Workmen’s Compensation
Act 1994, which provides access to the WCF to all “workers” irrespective of
nationality.

SERC, TLSC and HRDF request that the RTG urgently act to ensure that the rights
of both Thai and migrant workers are protected equally in accordance with Thai
labour laws without distinctions and exceptions, especially those based on
nationality. This will ensure that the RTG adheres to fundamental principles
encapsulated in ILO C-19. Protecting migrants equally alongside Thai workers will
also ensure that in the future our Thai nation is not exposed internationally as a
nation that immorally benefits from the suffering of migrant workers from
Myanmar who flee into our country in search of a better life. For if such a
situation was to occur, Thailand would rightly be rejected for acceptance by
countries and communities around the world.

State Enterprise Workers Relations Confederation of Thailand (SERC)

Thai Labour Solidarity Committee (TLSC)
The Human Rights and Development Foundation (HRDF)
21st September 2010
Bangkok, THAILAND