Coordinamento; Thailand Country Report

THAILAND COUNTRY REPORT

Based on the conference presentations
by Jaded Chouwilai
Friend of Women Foundation

  WOMEN comprise 90% of Thailand's export-oriented workforce. Electronics is the most common industry in the zones. Thailand is considered to be one of the best, if not the best, investment areas in the region because of its pro-business policies, generous incentive system (including investor holidays), and a relatively skilled and inexpensive labour force.
   Women workers are campaigning against the displacement of workers through technology. They feel that they have nojob security. When high technology has been introduced into the factories, women workers have been displaced.
   Women are also saddled with an unequal burden of household work. Most Thai men have not adjusted to the new roles that women have taken on in the workplace.
   Women workers are campaigning for gender-related demands such as maternity leave, health and safety, and increased wages. Thailand's minimum daily wage, which ranges between 110 Baht (US$4.40 at a rate of 24.706 Baht/ $USI) and 135 baht (US$5.40), only covers a single person's living costs.
   Workers have demanded wage increases every year. Their demands are always met with threats from companies that they will move their operations to China, where the daily wage is US$1.22, or Vietnam, where it is US$0.81.
   This year, labour unions asked Thailand's national wage board for a 15% increase in the minimum wage. The Board decided to increase the daily minimum wage by half the amount requested by the unions. Effective I July, the official minimum daily wage will range from 110 baht (US$4.48) to 145 baht (US$5.86), depending on the region.
   Meanwhile, Thailand's most powerful industrial group, the Federation of Thai Industries, is seeking a 35% to 40% cut in the current daily minimum wage in designated areas along Thailand's border with Burma and Laos. The border zone proposal is intended to target migrant workers.
   In its rush towards NIC status, the government has created many industrial zones in rural areas. But economic growth is meaningless for the zone workers as long as they are forced to pay the high costs that come with it: work-related sickness and injuries, pollution of their water and air, and destruction of their tradi tional economies and way of life.

AT A GLANCE

EXPORT PROCESSING ZONES
At least 18 "region industrial estates."
Two categories of industrial - estates: general industrial zones/estates and export processing zones (EPZs)
Growth Areas: Greater Mekong Subnsgion, AFTA, Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle, and ASEAN
UNEMPLOYMENT RATE
3.6% (1992)
MINIMUM WAGE
US$4.48 to US$5.86
POPULATION
60.2 million
LABOUR FORCE
32.1 million (56.5%ofpopulation) (1993)
EPZ WORKERS
27,990(1990)
ECONOMIC GROWTH
7.4% (1995)
PER CAPITA GDP (PPP)
US$6,390
INFLATION RATE (CPI)
4.8% (1994); 5.4% (June 1995)
FOREIGN DEBT
US$ 45.8 billion

Restrictions and controls on Thai Unions

  SINCE 1957, Thailand, with the support of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), has promoted export-led growth and foreign investment. Until the student and people's movements forced reforms in 1973, the military government created an attractive investment atmosphere through political violence directed at the labour movement.
   Trade union activism brought about labour refomms, in cluding the Labour Relations Act in 1975. The law legalised trade union organising, collective bar gaining, and the right to strike. But once the leftist movement went into decline after 1980, the govemment began to roll back trade union rights and weaken workers' bargaining power.
   The right to form unions and to strike were repealed by the National Peace Keeping Council (NKPC) after the February 1991 military coup. Thai employers are now legally permitted to dismiss workers who initiate unions, to re place striking workers, and to prohibit strike activity in factories. Industry-wide bargaining is prohibited as is unionisation of state enterprise workers. Moreover, non-workers who support or assist in labour strikes can face two years of imprisonment if convicted.
   The 1975 Labour Relations Act introduced a system of tripartite committees. Created by the government to promote "class harmony," these committees do not reflect workers' true interests. They have served instead as an effective tool by the state to control, restrict, and decrease the bargaining power of the trade unions.
   The government representatives on the committee always side with the employers in an effort to promote a pro-investment environment. The employee counterparts, who are nominated (not elected), have no bargaining power. By excluding trade unions, the tri-partite committees have narrowed the channel for workers to demand their rights.
   Employers utilise the existing labour laws and mechanisms to restrict trade unions. Casual employment, subcontracting, closing down factories where trade unions are strong, and dismissal of union leaders are mechanisms that are commonly used to evade unionisation.
   "lndustrial peace" and "class harmony" ideologies weaken worker activism. Trade unions, which are typically enterprise-spe cific, are often used by employers to help increase productivity. Meanwhile union leaders gain individual political power from their positions. Although the trade union movement is splintered into 7 weak labour federations, some of the unions are campaigning and pushing political parties to amend the labour laws so that they will really protect workers' rights. Yet the only way change will take place is if workers wake up and if trade unions join the movement.

Based on "Restnction and Controls Imposed Upon ThaiTrade Unions, " by Somyot Phreugsakasemsook, Center of Labour lnformation Service and Training (CLIST)

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