Over 2000 Myanmar labourers at a major Thai tuna export company have taken collective action to improve their working conditions and secure social welfare benefits. Their petition is a rare move in a country that bars foreign workers from assembling unions and in an industry that has been mired in labour abuse scandals.
On January 30, representatives of the 2243 workers submitted their requests to the company, Unicord/Seavalue Group, and to Thailand’s labour protection and social welfare department, according to the Migrant Workers Rights Network, which assisted in the case.
The rights group welcomed the petition as an unprecedented and historic move by migrant workers to gain increased welfare benefits and work conditions for themselves.
The workers have asked for better pay, including bonuses, night shift allowances, and improved access to welfare benefits for those who have worked without absence for two or more weeks, MWRN said in a statement.
According to Thailand’s laws, workers have the right to request such allowances prescribed by the law, including incentives and daily bonuses, said U Sein Htay, president of MWRN.
This is the first time in Thailand that [migrant] workers have pursued such collective bargaining, he added.
According to U Sein Htay, seven Myanmar workers representatives submitted their petition to the employer and also sent a copy to the Thailand government. They are seeking conditions that are comparable with the benefits provided by other major seafood processors in Thailand, he said.
He added that the employer, Unicord factories, is obligated to respond to the concerns as they are a leading member of the Thai Tuna Industry Association, which commits organisations to a strict labour code of conduct. The company has three days to try to resolve the workers’ demands before the government must intervene and mediate the dispute.
We believe this negotiation will be successful and lead to a trickle-down effect where other employees will be empowered and feel confident to organise and collectively bargain to make demands of their employers, Andy Hall, an international adviser to MWRN told Thomson Reuters Foundation.
There are estimated 12,000 workers employed at Unicord tuna processing plants, according MWRN’s press release. Workers at Unicord told The Myanmar Times that around 7000 of the employees are Myanmar migrants employed through the legal, bilateral agreement between Myanmar and Thailand.
All our demands address benefits that the factory provides to its Thai workers. The Thai workers are given bonuses like housing stipends and water and electricity stipends. We have received nothing like that, said Ko Nyi Su, a Myanmar work leader who has been employed at the factory for three years.
Unicord, a subsidiary of Seavalue Group, was established in 1980. The majority of its products are exported under more than 350 brand names.
The company’s website says that it works very hard with our suppliers to ensure that the fish we put into each can or pouch is free from any illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing practice. The website also lists an ethical trading and social policy that says the company aim[s] to act responsibly in our commercial and trading activities. We will do what we can to ensure that the labour standards of people working for our suppliers will meet relevant international standards
Finnish advocacy group Finnwatch has been monitoring Unicord since 2012. In a 2015 report, Finnwatch said that the factory had undertaken efforts to improve the workers’ conditions, rare praise in Thailand’s seafood industry, which was slapped with a yellow card warning by the EU in 2015 and again in 2016. The warning was issued for the perceived failure to root out illegal and unregulated fishing.
The Myanmar Times, 2016