Asian nations urged to protect workers
Asian nations urged to protect workers
BANGKOK (Reuters): The United Nations' labor rights watchdog
urged Asian governments on Tuesday not to forget workers' rights
as they sorted out the region's economic crisis.
William Simpson, director of technical cooperation for the
International Labor Organization (ILO) secretariat in East Asia,
told Reuters that workers' rights should be built into the
economic reforms now underway in many Asian countries.
"We want to see in place a minimum of social conditions and
minimum standards for working conditions -- basic worker rights
which we think should be enjoyed universally," he said.
"These are not 'Western' values, but universal values and
should be supported by everyone. These should be Asian values."
If workers participated in decision-making about changes, this
would ease painful economic and social reforms and help avoid
labor strife. But if workers' rights were ignored, many of the
region's problems could only worsen, he said.
"This is an opportunity for many of the countries that are
restructuring their economies," Simpson said in an interview.
"But there is a huge risk of workers' rights being forgotten
in the process because weak trade unions cannot look after
themselves and are not strong enough or competent enough to
promote and defend their own interests," he said.
Simpson said the ILO was pressing the International Monetary
Fund to support workers' rights in Asian economies supported by
IMF bailouts.
The IMF has marshalled over $100 billion in the last 18 months
in bailout packages for Asian economies hit by recession,
currency devaluations and financial crises.
Most of the money has gone to restoring confidence in debt-
ridden financial systems, and the IMF has supported fiscal
reforms involving tough austerity measures.
Whatever the long-term merits of these policies, the short-
term effect has been to raise unemployment and poverty in many
countries, increasing the risk of social strife.
But Simpson said protection of workers' rights supported
rather than undermined economic reforms.
"The ILO is saying to the IMF that there should be no
incompatibility between economic development and social
progress," he said.
"If there were strong trade unions, they would make sure that
before there were mass dismissals, the employers would sit down
and work out ways of keeping to a minimum the number of people
they would have to lay off," he said.
"Strong trade unions should mean less labor strife, not more.
If you have strong, competent and responsible trade unions they
can contain social unrest," he said.
"Trade unions should be consulted by the World Bank and the
IMF on anything that affects workers and their families."
"Of course the rights of workers are squeezed when times are
hard, but they should not be squeezed beyond the minimum. No
matter what the circumstances are, there should be a minimum
protection for workers and their families," he said.
"We are already seeing a deterioration of child labor
conditions, safety provisions and health levels."
"Because these things are expensive, employers say 'We can't
afford to have them'. We would say, 'You can't afford not to have
them'. A safe worker is a more productive worker," he said.
Simpson said economic reforms could be made faster and more
efficiently where trade unions and employer groups were in place.
"It is not too late to cure the weaknesses of the past. We have
got to start somewhere and we have got to start now," he said.