Labour and the dynamics of change

Bangkok Post

3 days ago

The fluctuating international context compels countries in this region and beyond to recalibrate their labour laws, policies and practices. This is particularly critical at a time of great demographic changes, such as declining and ageing population in parts of the globe, compromised by a more transactional and conditional world of "quid pro quo". Thailand faces an inflection point on this front, requiring dynamic adjustments.
At the forefront of the context is the relationship between the labour force and related standards to guarantee that "labour is not a commodity" and that the human face at work needs protection in the form of human rights. The International Labour Organization (ILO) is the key standard-setter, even preceding the birth of the UN, and now also a specialised UN agency. It has evolved 192 Conventions, with the latest being on biological hazards confronting the health and well-being of workers.
These Conventions are complemented by the UN's own family of human rights standards, especially the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). The latter is sometimes clearer than ILO Conventions and helps to reinforce them. The most poignant query today is the right to strike, which has proved to be a thorn in the interpretation of ILO Convention Number 87 on Freedom of Association. While some claim that the latter does not cover the right to strike, the ICESCR stipulates explicitly the right to strike and over 100 countries, including Thailand, are parties to this treaty. The issue of whether Convention Number 87 covers such right is now before the International Court of Justice for clarification.
From a more political angle, non-democracies are often less comfortable with political rights, such as freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, as compared with social rights, such as access to education. A comprehensive response advocates respect for the full range of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, requiring astute and principled diplomacy-cum-levers.
The need to avoid a UN silo approach is also important. The UN Human Rights Council has been constructive in recent years to underline that "labour rights are human rights". For this reason, the fate of thousands of seafarers stuck on the high seas and elsewhere due to the Covid-19 pandemic has led to amendments of the ILO's Maritime Labour Convention, and social security is a key concern interrelated with the world of work.
Another area where labour at work interfaces with the changing international context is in relation to wars or armed conflicts. Do labour standards apply in such volatile situations? Although difficult, some labour standards, such as the treaty countering forced labour, ILO Convention Number 29, have been applied, for example, in regard to the women abused for sexual purposes during the Second World War.
ILO Convention Number 182 on prohibition of the worst forms of child labour also militates against conscription of children under 18. The monitoring mechanism of these Conventions, namely the ILO Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations, has called for attention to the role of non-government armed groups, which might be using children for this purpose, and the need for countermeasures.
Precisely because warfare often creates a vacuum where people are not adequately protected, now all too visible in border areas with online scams and human trafficking, it has become essential for labour protection to go hand in hand with transnational cooperation on law enforcement and pressures for accountability, not only through the UN but also via those constituencies supporting the various warring factions.
From another angle, the lens of sustainable development interplays closely with the labour context, and the world is now guided by the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. For instance, SDG Goal 8 calls for the elimination of child labour by 2025. While many, if not all of the SDGs, will be unfulfilled by the target year of 2030, they still act as drivers of change towards measurable standards within a given time frame. This year, the forthcoming World Social Summit will be an opportunity to reiterate those goals with more commitments on social protection, including for workers.
Another pressing issue is environmental protection, climate change and global warming. This necessitates rethinking labour at work. The ILO Conventions on occupational safety and health, Numbers 155 and 187, have become more important to address working conditions impacted by environmental changes, such as increased temperatures at work and recurrent flooding. New initiatives in this regard include "green collective bargaining" so that labour contracts can be more flexible to assist workers, complemented by climate-change-related paid leave, such as to cope with floods.
Interestingly, in the value chain, such as in the garment industry, due diligence on the part of the business sector is now emerging as a requisite for business and human rights, and good labour practices. This requires impact assessment, mitigation and remedies for workers and others affected especially by sub-par business practices.
Finally, there is the issue of digitalisation and the advent of Artificial Intelligence at the workplace. The vast pool of gig workers or platform workers in various industries, such as in the food industry, has pressed for a new response to workers in situations of precarity. The ILO is now drafting a new treaty on digital platform workers so that they will be protected by some, if not all, of the basic range of labour rights, such as on minimum wage, rest periods and coverage of accidents.
Understandably, the workforce might fear that AI will disrupt their lives and lead to dismissals and redundancies. A preferred approach is thus to plan for AI inclusion to augment the capacity of workers rather than to displace them. For instance, AI will be especially useful for the 3Ds -- "Difficult, Dirty and Demeaning" -- tasks, such as mining, pesticide spraying and various types of cleaning. Another 3Ds also open the door to AI: Delicate, Dreary and Didactic tasks, such as precise medical procedures, repetitive chores and training-cum-education, respectively.
There will be a hotchpotch world where human labour will exist side by side with the presence of non-humans, requiring empathy for sentient beings, grounded on decent work for all.
Vitit Muntarbhorn is a Professor Emeritus, a former member of the ILO CEACR, and a UN Special Rapporteur. This article is derived from his address at the international Labour Law Research Network Conference, held recently in Bangkok.