ASEAN Social Charter would set a decent social safety net

Pravit Rojanaphruk The Nation Asia News Network/Bangkok

Nearly four decades after ASEAN was founded, labor activists say it's time to push for an ASEAN Social Charter that would guarantee a certain level of labor rights across the region.

Considering how free trade within the region has been pushed by ASEAN political and business leaders, this is long overdue. Thai labor activists and union leaders met last month to discuss the possibility of such a charter, which would signal a shift towards greater people's participation in the 10-country regional block.

But any unrealistic optimism should be heavily doused by the fact that the disparity in labor standards within the region is vast.

Consider Burma, with its infamous forced labor inflicted by the Rangoon junta on its own populace. The majority of the estimated two million migrant laborers in Thailand are from Burma; many are discriminated against and paid much lower than the minimum wage. Some workers are even cheated out of being paid anything at all.

In Tak province's Mae Sot, situated right on the northern border with Burma, abuse ranges from extrajudicial killings to rape, human trafficking, arrests and deportation, says the Thai Labor Campaign, a Bangkok-based non-governmental group. The organization claims that workers on the Thai side of the border are paid only Bt55 per day, roughly one-third of the national minimum wage.

Workers' freedom of movement is restricted by their employers and worksites tend to resemble concentration camps rather than factories. Child labor has also been reported, and one factory with 2,000 workers has only 20 toilets on its premises.

People who think that Singapore is any better should bear in mind that any unskilled female migrant worker who becomes pregnant is usually deported by the island-state's government.

Combined with this is the pressure on poorer ASEAN nation- states to compete with each other by paying the lowest possible wages to workers, in order to attract foreign investors, on top of subcontract work at near-subhuman pay.

"(ASEAN) is a heaven for investors but a hell for workers," said Sakdina Chatrakul na Ayutthaya, a labor expert at the Bangkok office of Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, a German pro-labor foundation.

Sakdina admitted at the meeting last month, however, that most workers in Thailand and throughout the region still have no idea what the ASEAN Social Charter is all about -- so it's time to kick off a campaign to raise awareness. He said that the European Social Charter could and should be referred to as an example.

Many at the meeting hoped that a minimum yet decent labor standard and social safety net would eventually be endorsed by ASEAN.

Labor leader Wilaiwan sae Tia said that ASEAN cannot continue pushing for a regional free-trade zone without taking labor rights into consideration.

She's right, although setting a common minimum standard will not be an easy task. Intra-regional competition, especially between poorer nations, for the cheapest wages with which to attract foreign investors will continue, but a strategy to boost the region's labor rights and protection would be a move in the right direction.

There are some caveats that ought to be considered, however. Setting standards too high may lead to an unattainable goal. Cross-border solidarity is also needed, in order to ensure it is a success. This won't be easy. Labor movements are no exception to the ultra-nationalist ideology spread by each member country. If the idea of a social charter cannot be explained as a goal for the common good, a win-win strategy for all member societies, then any hope of mustering any serious support for the campaign will be dashed.

Nevertheless, it's definitely worth a try. Any attempt would be long overdue.