Thai Union Group is partnering with the Migrant Worker Rights Network (MWRN) to give formal training to employees across its operations in Thailand on labor and social welfare regulations.
The aim is to have migrant workers in Thai Union facilities in Thailand properly educated on labor and social welfare rights according to Thai law by the end of 2016 and that all these facilities fully comply with these standards.
“Our corporate vision is to be the world’s most trusted seafood leader, and to achieve that we have to be a pro-active leader of change in the seafood industry,” said Darian McBain, group director of sustainable development at Thai Union, which is under fire from NGO Greenpeace and also being accused in a lawsuit in the US of selling seafood from a supply chain allegedly containing slave labor.
“We employ migrant workers in our Thai factories and treat them to the same high standards of labor rights and welfare as their Thai counterparts," said McBain.
Educating the company's migrant worker staff; overcoming language and cultural issues; as well as informing them of their rights under Thai law is essential, which is why Thai Union partnered with MWRN, she said.
The first of many planned migrant workers’ rights workshops presented in a collaboration between Thai Union and MWRN was held on Sept. 26, 2015 and was led by U Sein Htay, MWRN president, and attended by a 60-strong group of employees at one of the Thai Union factories in Samut Sakhon province.
“MWRN has been regularly invited to audit Thai Union facilities and has also extensively researched labor conditions in these workplaces by interviewing Thai Union’s migrant employees,” said Andy Hall, international affairs advisor to the MWRN, said.
"We are now actively working together with Thai Union to develop a more comprehensive partnership on these issues for the future, particularly focusing on worker rights education and effective auditing and enforcement of Thai Union’s core labor standards," said Hall.
On a recent webinar, Hall cited work in Thailand with Thai Union as a “spark of hope”, and noted that the Thai Frozen Foods Association and Thai Tuna Industry Association too have begun good work.
“Debates over what we do are happening in boardrooms and over the phone, away from where they need to. It's time to start getting stakeholders together and actually starting some measures, to gain some practical learning experiences on the ground," he said.
MWRN is a membership-based organization for migrant workers from Myanmar residing and working mainly in Thailand, founded in 2009.
