We, civil society national representatives from 10 ASEAN Member States comprising of Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, gathered to participate in the National CSO Representative Preparation Meeting for the 8^th ASEAN Forum on Migrant Labor (AFML) organised by the Task Force on ASEAN Migrant Workers (TF-AMW) on 25 October 2015 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to discuss and make recommendations for the 8^th AFML being held in Kuala Lumpur from 26 to 27 October 2015.

The meeting focused on developing recommendations to address the two sub-themes of the forum: “Occupational safety and health to foster a safe and healthy working environment” and “Labour inspection to ensure workplaces provide minimum employment rights”. These two themes are designed to support realisation of the overarching theme of the 8^th AFML of “Empowering the ASEAN Community through Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers”.

To achieve this, we envision and call for a people-oriented ASEAN that practices universal respect for human rights and human dignity, the rule of law, justice, equality and non-discrimination; of respect for race, ethnicity and cultural diversity; and of equal opportunity permitting the full realization of human potential and contributing to shared prosperity. The rights-based approach to migration is enshrined in the Cebu Declaration, as such ASEAN Member states are obligated to uphold the fundamental human and labour rights of all workers, including migrant workers. We want ASEAN to fully implement the Sustainable Development Goal 8: “Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all”.

This requires all ASEAN Member States to adopt and implement policies to abolish discrimination in all forms against migrant workers. The TFAMW had earlier in 2009 developed recommendations through extensive and inclusive ground-up consultations with CSOs, based on the Civil Society Proposal on the ASEAN Framework Instrument on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Migrant Workers, that are relevant to work toward this objective:

1. The ASEAN member Governments shall eliminate all forms of discriminatory policies and practices against migrant workers and ensure that all aspects of labour law, and social protection and anti-discrimination laws, are equally applied to all categories of migrants, in adherence with the principle of “national treatment.”; and
2. Because migrant workers in ASEAN are increasingly female, the Member States of ASEAN shall set out clear gender sensitive policies on migration, and ensure that Government practices towards migrants reflect these gender specific migration policies. These practices should aim to be empowering rather than restrictive of women’s migration and mobility.

Civil Society Recommendations for 8th AFML

Theme 1: On Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) to foster a safe and healthy work environment.

Pre and Post-Arrival Recommendation on OSH

1. Countries of origin should ensure that up-to-date information on OSH are properly incorporated into pre-departure training or orientation sessions, such as those related to work safety environment, work accidents or sickness arising due to work. Adequate safety guidelines on OSH should be included in post-arrival trainings in countries of destination for migrant workers in their native languages. The information on OSH should be relevant and standardised for both origin and destination countries. Employers must also provide appropriate Personal Protective Equipment for migrant workers, and the cost should not be borne by migrant workers.
2. Migrant workers should be informed of their rights to basic needs relating to OSH in the living and working places, including sufficient time for toilet breaks, meal time, and clean facilities. They should also be informed on the mechanisms available in both the destination countries and countries of origin on how to claim compensation arising from workplace accidents.

Report and Redress Mechanisms

3. Promote and protect reporting at all levels of any OSH lapses in the workplace, such as protection of whistleblowers and complaints should be handled without prejudice.
4. OSH redress mechanisms should be improved to be migrant worker friendly. Stakeholders such as CSOs and unions should assist migrant workers to access reporting/complaint mechanism relating to OSH issues.
5. Migrant workers should receive similar compensation with regard to local workers. They should be provided health care and treatment for long term effect of occupational injuries and diseases.
6. Government should revoke any regulations and that discriminate all migrant workers from accessing Workmen Compensation Fund, regardless of their status.

Domestic Work

7. To promote and protect psychological health of migrant workers, especially domestic workers, they should be recognized as workers and must be covered under the national OSH and Workman Compensation laws, and the OSH conditions of domestic workers’ workplace should be inspected.

General Recommendation for Research and Action

8. Research and documentation on occupational diseases and workplace accidents should be jointly conducted by stakeholders, including CSOs, and the results should be used to develop prevention action plans. All ASEAN Member States are recommended to ratify the Priority OSH ILO Conventions C155 and C187.

Theme 2: Labour inspection to protect minimum employment rights at work for migrant workers

9. The number of labour inspectors available should be increased, provided with adequate training to verify terms of employment, in order to conduct efficient and regular inspection that effectively enforce existing terms of employment according to the labour laws, especially in vulnerable, and hard to reach sectors and workplaces such as mining, fishery, domestic work, agriculture and plantations. Labour inspection teams should also include sufficient, and adequately qualified translator/interpreter when inspecting migrant reliant sectors/workplaces.
10. ASEAN governments should ensure that labour inspectors can freely access all workplace, and accommodation of migrant workers, without interference from employers. In addition, genuine and random spot checks should be conducted, especially in migrant reliant sectors in their workplaces and living quarters. Reports on inspections of workplaces and living quarters should be accessible to the workers and the public.
11. The role of labour inspection should be distinctly separated from that of immigration checks, and where joint inspections are conducted with immigration authorities, clear priority should be on preventing exploitation of migrant workers, and to facilitate their regularisation.
12. Develop ASEAN guidelines for effective labour inspection processes that are gender sensitive in migrant-reliant sectors, including one-to-one interview of workers in safe environments, and promoting the use of standard employment contracts.
13. Comprehensive studies should be jointly conducted by stakeholders, including CSOs, and the results should be used to enhance existing strategies that will effectively strengthen labour inspection in line with international labour standards.
14. Labour inspection needs to be recognised as crucial to labour administration, with allocation of sufficient resources and budgeting for training and upgrading of inspectorate staff.