BANGKOK, April 30 – Thailand’s labour unions have called on the government to stop policies that breach workers’ rights, accelerate social security reform and refrain from privatising state enterprises.
In their five-point demands to Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to mark National Labour Day on May 1, labour networks nationwide insisted that the government retain the Bt300 daily minimum wage, implemented since early this year, until 2015.
Chalee Loysung, chairman of the Thai Labour Reconciliation Committee, said the government must ratify the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention No 87 and No 98 on freedom of association and negotiations.
One of the demands, jointly submitted by the Federation of State Enterprise Relations and other labour networks, urged the government to avoid issuing policies or legislation that violates the ILO Convention, citing activities by 13 leaders of the State Railway of Thailand labour union.
They demanded that the government create a social welfare system, refrain from interfering in state enterprise administration and reform the social security system to entitle employees to health insurance.
