A Thai fisheries factory has further capitulated to the demands of its workers and agreed to equally compensate all labourers in a companywide settlement a development rights advocates say is virtually unprecedented.
The new terms will extend to 200 mostly Myanmar staffers on a piecemeal contract who were initially overlooked.
At the end of February, the factory agreed to shell out compensation in a rare victory for migrant workers.
The workers had been fighting to end a smattering of abuses at the factory, including overcharging for work documents, unpaid overtime and illegal paycheck deductions.
The initial settlement deal involved 48 million baht (US$1.3 million) of backpay, divided between 1750 workers, including over 1400 from Myanmar. However, up to 200 workers paid on an output basis said they were not covered in the settlement.
Last week the terms were extended, and the piecemeal workers were each given 20,000 baht ($566) in backpay.
According to the Migrant Worker Rights Network, which assisted in the case, all 60 million baht has successfully been parcelled out to the employees.
All workers have received compensation now. This is a very good sign for Myanmar migrant workers that companies cannot abuse them and expect to get away with it, said U Sein Htay, chair of the MWRN.
Golden Prize employees said yesterday that most have resumed work at the factory.
I received 20,000 baht for compensation on March 5. I was really happy to get it because I was also unlawfully abused, said Ko Aung Ko Win, one of the piecemeal workers.
Thailand’s abuse-riddled fisheries sector has come under increased international scrutiny over the past two years, resulting in the country being downgraded to the lowest level on the US Trafficking in Persons Report. The EU also issued a yellow card warning, threatening to boycott Thailand’s largest export industry if conditions did not improve.
Yet victories such as that enjoyed by the Golden Prize workers remain rare in the sector. According to a recent report by the MWRN and the International Labor Rights Forum, many of the proposed solutions to abuses of migrant workers have failed to properly ensure protection of their rights.
Much of the response has focused on third-party audits, which do not change structural problems that enable exploitation. They also often sideline rather than empower workers, according to findings based on a range of case studies, including Golden Prize.
Securing decent conditions in the seafood industry depends on the ability of the workers to exercise their rights at work and access responsive grievance redress mechanisms when their rights are violated, the MWRN said.
To more effectively solve workplace abuses, such as in the instance of Golden Prize, the workers must be brought into the dispute resolution process.
If government and industry actors are to truly change conditions in Thailand’s seafood supply chain workers must be brought into the process as equals and valuable stakeholders in a process to fix systemic imbalances, not as victims needing to be saved by outside actors, MWRN said.
2016 The Myanmar Times