U Myo Aung, Director-General of the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Welfare, told Mizzima that it is hard to estimate when the new minimum wage for Myanmar workers will be announced.
A Burmese human rights organisation has filed what is claimed to be the first ever formal complaint against Thai police for their alleged role in extorting Burmese migrant workers in Thailand.
About 80 per cent of Myanmar workers in Thailand with MoU documentation are still losing their labour rights, a Thailand-based migrant workers’ rights activist told a workshop held at Judson Hall in Yangon. Despite a treaty between Myanmar and Thailand, Myanmar workers do not enjoy the rights of minimum wage, workplace conditions or even the types of jobs included in the agreement, said Sein Htay of the Migrant Workers’ Rights Network. “They go to work in Thailand officially but most of their salaries and jobs are not the same as stated in the agreement. Some have been sent to Thailand by an agency but without having a job arranged first. Another setback for legal workers is that contracts with their employers do not allow them to change their jobs,” he said. “The agents from Myanmar are not making contact with the employers in Thailand, and they are sending workers through brokers from Thailand. So they can’t do anything if a worker faces a problem,” he said. “We know some agencies who have repeatedly signed pledges to assist workers who report problems but then do nothing. Some don’t even care if their agent licence gets revoked—as long as they continue to make money and can get away with cheating.”