News
Social Dialogue the ASEAN Way
The 4th Regional Tripartite Social Dialogue for Growth, Employment and Sound Industrial Relations in the Services Sectors just ended its 2 days in the sacred land of Siem Reap, Cambodia. The topic of this year conference is on “Standards and Inspection in Occupational Safety and Health”. The Conference was hosted by the Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training (MLVT) Cambodia in joint cooperation with the ASEAN Services Employees Trade Union Council (ASETUC) and the support from the ASEAN Confederation of Employers (ACE), the ASEAN Secretariat (ASEC) and the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES Germany).
| Tripartite Social dialogue is often known as a mechanism referring to discussions, negotiations and joint actions involving the tripartite partners – government, employers’ and trade union organizations. In ASEAN, regional social dialogue conferences were organized in the following timeline: 24 October 2009, Bangkok, Thailand ASEAN Economic Integration and its Impacts on Trade Unions and Workers – Bridge the Gap: The Workers’ Voice in ASEAN Integration 31 march – 1 April 2010, Ha Noi, Viet Nam Regional Tripartite Social Dialogue for Growth, Employment and Sound Industrial Relations in the Services Sectors: Sharing Experiences from ASEAN and the EU 31 October – 1 November 2011, Jakarta, Indonesia Regional Tripartite Social Dialogue for Growth, Employment and Sound Industrial Relations in the Services Sectors: Best Practices and the Roles of ASEAN Tripartite Partners 2012, Siem Reap Regional Tripartite Social Dialogue for Growth, Employment and Sound Industrial Relations in the Services Sectors in the ASEAN: Standards and Inspection in Occupational Health and Safety |
The Conference was attended by representatives of:
- the Senior Labour Officials Meeting’s Working Group on Progressive Labour Practices (SLOM-WG) and ASEAN Occupational Safety and Health Network (ASEAN OSHNET) from Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, and Viet Nam; the ASEAN Secretariat;
- the employers’ organizations from Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Viet Nam;
- the trade unions organizations from Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, including construction, energy, finance, forestry, graphical & packaging, healthcare and telecom sectors;
- USDAW (UK) represented by Mr. John Hannett, General Secretary;
- A delegation of AEON Management & Union led by Mr Manabu Oshima, Chief Human Resource Officer and Mr. Hiroshi Takeda, General Secretary of AEON Group Workers’ Union and Hanae Nakano, Deputy Director for UI Zensen International Affairs Bureau;
- LO-FTF Council (Danish Trade Union Council for International Development Cooperation) represented by Ms. Heidi Hvid Hansen, International Advisor and the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES Germany) Delegation that includes Julia Mueller, Director and Andre Edelhoff, Program Manager.
The Conference was chaired by brother Phuong Sovann, ASETUC Chair 2012. The ASETUC Delegation was led by brother Mohamed Shafie BP Mammal, General Secretary. Representatives from the three GUFs leaders and affiliates in the ASEAN countries make up trade union delegation. Brother Christopher Ng, Regional Secretary of UNI Global Union Asia Pacific (UNI Apro) and brother Apolinar Tolentino, Regional Representative of the Building and Wood Workers International Asia Pacific (BWI AP) were present. The ASETUC/ GUFs leadership have continuously made efforts to engage in ASEAN to increase the participation of trade union in the ASEAN integration process and to ensure the credibility of trade unions in the advocacy of social partnership.
The Conference revisited the progress of ASEAN Labour Ministers’ Work Program (ALM’s WP) 2010 – 2015 and the Work Plan to Revitalize the ASEAN OSHNET. Sharing of programs relating to OSH Standards and Inspection by countries (Cambodia, Malaysia and Viet Nam) and by sectors (Retail, Healthcare and Construction) as well as the experiences of successful social partnership from USDAW, UK and AEON, Japan were presented to the audience.
According to Dato’ Misran Karmain, the Deputy Secretary General of the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Pillar, ASEAN Secretariat emphasized to the Conference that OSH exists as a right and not a priviledge within all socially viable societies; therefore it is very important in the labour sector. He shared that the ASEAN Labour Ministers have agreed that in the next 10 years in ASEAN, action-oriented approach to raise OSH standards through our region are taken by the ASEAN OSH NET and supported by the ASEAN Labour Ministers. On this basis, OSH issues are discussed through social dialogue to enrich and synergize from tri-partite partners in ASEAN.
The success of the Conference lies not only on the constructive inputs but also the mutual efforts in building up friendship, partnership and trust among each other through agreement and disagreement in various discussion points. The Conference endorsed the joint recommendation to be submitted to the ASEAN SLOMS via the ASEAN Secretariat for consideration and evaluation for the implementation of the ALM’s WP 2010 – 2015.
Proposal for the ASEAN OSHNET and ASETUC/ GUFs cooperation framework was discussed among the ASEAN SLOMs, ASEAN OSH NET Secretariat and ASETUC and will be submitted to the ASEAN OSHNET Coordinating Board Meeting in April 2013. The cooperation brings about synergy in setting the regional guideline to OSH standards in the services sectors in ASEAN.
Social Dialogue the ASEAN way is making its kick start ahead. 