TUCP lauds ASEAN leaders for consensus on protection of migrants

The Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP) has lauded ASEAN leaders for agreeing to sign the Consensus on the Protection and Promotion of Migrant Workers.

The consensus is a continuation of the ASEAN Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers introduced by the Philippines when it last hosted the ASEAN Summit on January 2007.

ALU-TUCP spokesperson Alan Tanjusay said in a statement that this consensus agreement will promote best practices for the benefit of the 10 million migrant workers among the 10 ASEAN countries.

"This is a positive step towards improving core labor and occupational safety and health standards on decent and humane treatment of ASEAN migrant workers and their families,” Tanjusay remarked.

He said the lack of a uniform core labor standards and occupational safety and health standards prevents ASEAN from having a "genuine and functional shared prosperity" and will lead to more abuses to the most vulnerable sectors of the countries.

“Without a uniform, binding labor standards in ASEAN, we would see rampant practice of child labor, more abuses on women workers, prevalent sweatshops, poor wages, temporary and short-term jobs, and bare social protection in ASEAN as governments and businesses prod workers to produce goods and services,” Tanjusay said.

Apart from the labor consensus, the Philippines and other ASEAN nations will jointly declare the official start of negotiations on the code of conduct in disputed waters including the West Philippine Sea this week. —Rie Takumi/NB, GMA News