U Maung Maung, President of CTUM will give Myanmar Worker Delegate speech at ILC

U Maung Maung, President of CTUM will give Myanmar Worker Delegate speech at International Labour Conference

2019 June 13
Thank you Chair

The Confederation of Trade Unions Myanmar CTUM – a product of the workers struggle over 25 years within Burma and with the help of the ILO’s Complaints mechanism is proud to be part of the Centenary Conference of the ILO.

CTUM and its members look forward to another 100 years of Decent Work as a strong constituent of the ILO.

CTUM also would like to express that we do not agree with any kind of violence, whether within the communities or at the work place and are working hard to establish a modern community that works through Social Dialogue.

In Feb 2019 report by the Committee Experts, we find that our Government is responsible to many requirements regarding eradication of Forced Labor In Myanmar in law and practice, and to eliminate the worst forms of Child Labour and to guarantee FoA. We thank the ILO and the Committee of Experts for providing the detailed needs. And as Social partners, we the trade unions also feel responsible and would like to inform the ILO that we will from now will be actively participating to eradicate Forced Labor in our country. For that we also request adequate training on the ILO Complaints Mechanism for the workers and farmers all over the country.

At the same time we would like to report that the National Tripartite Dialogue Forum NTDF is a mechanism that the Social partners and the Government have been using to amend the Labor Organization Law, the Dispute Settlement Law and the Minimum Wage.

Deleting the Public Sector workers from the Dispute Settlement Law, denying the Construction Sector Workers the right to organize, denying the new forms of jobs developing through a more open and democratic society such as independent journalists, modern dancers, the bicycle service delivery and messenger services the Right to Organize and represent as an organized body and denying Freedom of Expression, are issues that we are frustrated with. Yet we will work through the Social Dialogue mechanism to achieve our goals.

We would also like to inform the ILO that within our Parliament there is now a Committee that will concentrate on the items that need to be amended within the National Constitution. We will work with the ILO and propose to the Parliament so that when the amendments are discussed, article 359 is also included.

Members of our agriculture sector, the AFFM are also disappointed with the Land Law, Vacant, Fallow and Virgin Land Management Law and are now requesting the Government for an early amendment so that less harm will be done in the land dispute cases.

As a country that is opening up and where the youth are looking for a better future, many have become migrants. Safe Migration, Zero Costs Migrations are being discussed with the help of the ILO but as we have very low awareness within the rural population, brokers are around to prey on uninformed members of the community. There needs to be strict enforcement with higher penalties of the Anti trafficking laws.

Since 2016 the Jade mine licenses have not been renewed but local military commanders and local militia took bribes to allow the mines to operate. The Irrawaddy media ( of 2018 May 23 ) reported that Major Gen Nyi Nyi Swe head of the Southwestern Command and former head of Northern Command and Brig Gen Maung Maung Zan Commander of the 101 Battalion based in Hpakant, Kachin state were transferred to the auxiliary force and are under investigation.

From these unlicensed and unmonitored ( But big ) mines, there are workers rights violations, unpaid compensation in cases of accidents, landslides from tailings that kill tens of people who work on them. There is a big need for more enforcement by the Mining dept as well as Labor Inspectors on the OSH issues of these mines.

Chair – in my presentation to the ILO last year as well as in 2017, CTUM had requested that the present Liaison Office of the ILO be upgraded to a regular office with a full-fledged Country Director. We had also requested that a full time FoA officer be placed in country so that for a country that is opening up, both for the economy as well as for developing a better understanding of Industrial Relations.

In September of 2018, as mentioned in the report, Myanmar’s Social Dialogue partners signed an MoU for the Decent Work Country Program. We, the trade unions are committed to the DCWP as well as the SDGs, especially the Goal no 8 and yet still need more technical help – especially with the governance issues.

In conclusion, we call upon the ILO to support our transition towards a modern work force with solid Industrial Relations Awareness with a full fledged country office and more technical support.

Thank you.

( 805 words )