Burma’s Proposed Change in Labor Laws Welcomed by ILO

18 January 2011

According to an International Labor Organization (ILO) representative in Bangkok, Burma is proposing new legislation that will provide for legal trade unions to form, which will also have the right to strike. This is a positive sign in Burma’s slow movements towards economic reform, but ILO still has concerns about forced child labor issues in the private sector and by the military.

The proposed legislation will go before the new parliament elected in Burma in November 2010, which will meet for its first session at the end of January.

The military junta ruling Burma (Myanmar) has already passed the Freedom of Association Convention, recognized internationally and set as a standard by the ILO. The freedom of association is basically the right of the people to have representation when it comes to issues like the right to strike, or collective bargaining.

Human rights groups worry that even though this step has been taken towards creating a better labor market in Burma that any unions or associations formed after passage of the legislation will still be subject to strict regulation by the Burmese military regime. In the past, trade unionists were jailed for creating or participating in activities that did not receive prior military approval.

The ILO has been working in Burma in an attempt to end forced labor and has been successful in creating an agreement with the regime that allows people to lodge complaints with the ILO’s country offices. Last year alone, the ILO received 370 complaints, displaying a dramatic increase compared to previous years.

The ILO also reports that there has been some positive movement in the area of child soldiers being recruited into the military, or children being used for labor purposes. Over the last year, 73 children were released from the military due to complaints made to the ILO.

The Burmese military recently released news about a new national program for military service for both men and women that could come into effect starting in 2012. This new program is intended to have a direct impact on the recruitment of children into the military. In the past, Burma’s military turned to labor brokers to recruit underage children into the military when facing issues of recruiting enough officers, as well as issues with desertion.

Forced labor still remains a huge problem throughout Burma. Human rights groups report on whole villages forced to build roads and do other work for the military, while prisoners are recruited into local industries.

The ILO will conduct a further assessment of the labor practices in Burma in February, when it plans to appraise the new labor legislation and reforms.

More Charges Levied in Case of Thai Farm Worker Exploitation in the US

15 January 2011

A federal indictment unsealed on January 14, 2011 revealed new charges against labor contractor Global Horizons Manpower, Inc, based in Los Angeles. Global Horizons was accused in September of exploiting Thai farm workers in parts of the United States and Hawaii, luring them to the US with false promises of highly paid farm work and then subsequently confiscating their passports and confining them to work on one of several farms in their network.

The newly updated indictment adds more forced labor charges against Global Horizons and owner Mordechai Yosef Orian, five co-conspirators, several officers in the company and recruiters in Thailand. The workers were placed in farms on Oahu, a macadamia nut farm on the Big Island and several  US farms.

The updated indictment states that Mordechai and co-conspirators exploited around 600 farm workers between 2001 and 2007, providing them transport from Thailand to various farms in Hawaii, Arizona, Mississippi, California, Utah and New York. The workers were also transported back and forth between the farms involved, using commercial planes or Mordechai’s own private aircraft. It also states that Mordechai twice used his private aircraft in2005 to transport the workers to his house in Kona, to attend a barbeque that he provided as payment for their work, instead of the workers’ salaries.

Orian and the other defendants used the Thai recruiters to seek out workers earning around $1,000 USD per year in Thailand, and then promised them at least $2,000 USD per month for farm work in America.  The defendants then charged the interested workers a fee ranging from $9,500 USD to $26,500 USD for the recruitment process, often requiring the workers to take out loans on their homes and land as collateral payment.

The workers were kept under guard, threatened and often locked in their living quarters when they were not working so they could not escape. Other workers that complained about the lack of the promised pay amount, or receiving no salary at all or late payment, were either threatened or sent back to Thailand with no chance to pay back their massive loans for the recruitment fee.

The new indictment requests that Orian forfeit his private aircraft used to transport the workers to different farms in the USA and Hawaii.

Load of African Elephant Tusks Confiscated at Thai Airport

06 January 2011

In a shipment bound for Laos, customs officials at Thailand’s airport discovered 73 African elephant tusks hidden in crates at a Thai Airways International Warehouse. The shipment was sent from Mozambique, and though they were to be sent on to Laos officials believe that a Thai purchaser might be involved who planned for the cargo to be reported as missing from the Thai airport.

According to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), trade in African elephant tusks is completely forbidden and thus it is illegal to ship them overseas.

Bangkok is a major center for the illegal ivory trafficking industry. Thai law in fact facilitates the illegal trade, since elephants are categorized by Thailand as livestock and they are not listed as an endangered species. Trade is also allowed in domesticated Asian elephant tusks in Thailand.