Workers’ life seen insecure after formation of AC

BANGKOK, March 11 (TNA) - A discussion has pointed out that workers in the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will likely have insecure life after the formation of the ASEAN Community (AC) by 2015, as regional employers will have more workers to choose due to free labor movements. The discussion on the adaptation of labor organizations in the light of the AC, held in Bangkok on Monday, was co-organized by the Women and Men Progressive Movement Foundation, the Thai Health Promotion Foundation or ThaiHealth and an association for the promotion of community rights for development. Arunee Srito, president of the association, acknowledged that the AC will allow more workers from Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia to enter Thailand, where the now 300-baht daily minimum wage becomes attractive for them, causing the migrant workers to become formal workers and the rising number of informal workers as there will be more people who are allowed by their employers to work at home, urging Thai workers to prepare for the changes. Jadet Chaowilai, director of the Women and Men Progressive Movement Foundation, cautioned that the AC should make labor issues more complicated, as more foreign workers will arrive in Thailand, especially female workers, causing not only the problem of unfair wages, but also sexual harassment, domestic violence and danger in communities and the environment, calling for timely solutions. Independent labor researcher Woradul Tularak assessed that the AC should bring about more complaints from workers. According to him, Indonesia, in which there are the problems of minimum wage and insecure employment like other ASEAN member countries, is the alertest to possible labor issues, with over 2 million workers, general public and farmers joining in a strike lately to push for higher minimum wage and better health welfare, resulting in the Jakarta government to have responded positively to their demands. (TNA)