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.