Problems for union registration

I'm re-posting here an illuminating article from The Huffington Post December 21st, 2011 detailing the challenges faced by those seeking to register unions following the October 2011 legalisation of labour union formation in Myanmar. This article draws on a related article from Mizzima concerining the rejection of an application to form a union.

The Ministry of Labour said the application was unacceptable noting that President Thein Sein had not yet signed a notification that is required to put the new law into force and a chief registrar had not yet been appointed.

"They (authorities) just said they could not accept (the application)," trade union spokesman San Maung told Mizzima. "According to the law, it should not be like that.... According to the Constitution, the law must come into force as soon as the president signed it."