UN labour agency revives sanctions against Myanmar junta

For the first time since sanctioning the previous military dictatorship 25 years ago, the International Labour Organization (ILO) reinstated sanctions this month in response to alleged workers’ rights violations by the current regime. The ILO, a United Nations (UN) agency, took similar action against the junta headed by former commander-in-chief of the military Sen-Gen Than Shwe in the year 2000, citing the regime’s perpetration of and failure to curtail widespread forced labour practices as the grounds for sanctions. The agency reimposed sanctions on June 5 at the International Labour Conference (ILC) in Geneva, targeting the military regime that overthrew an elected civilian government in 2021. The decision was approved despite objections from a few junta allies such as Russia, Belarus, Laos, and China. Myanmar, one of the ILO’s 187 member states, has agreed to four of the agency’s 11 fundamental conventions. According to an ILO press statement on the sanctions, the regime has committed severe breaches of two of those fundamental principles: Convention 87, on the freedom of association; and Convention 29, on forced labour. The UN agency says the Myanmar junta failed to comply with 11 recommendations made by the ILO’s Commission of Inquiry in October 2023, including the restoration of democracy and civil liberties in Myanmar as well as recognition of the freedom of assembly, freedom of association, and freedom of expression. Phyo Sandar Soe, Assistant General Secretary of the Confederation of Trade Unions of Myanmar—a member of the ILO governing body—welcomed the decision. “Article 33 of the ILO Constitution protects the people’s and workers’ freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and association, and freedom to form organisations. Since these are issues the military doesn’t like, it will hurt them,” she said. The action also lays out procedures for monitoring noncompliance with the two ILO conventions in question, establishes complaint mechanisms, recommends that member countries review their relations with the Myanmar junta, and recommends stopping financial or commercial support—including the provision of arms and aviation fuel—that could enable human rights violations or violence against Myanmar’s civilian population. The ILO’s decision provides a means for Myanmar workers to pressure rights-violating employers and block streams of revenue to the military junta, according to Phyo Sandar Soe. “If understood clearly and used properly, this is a decision that can provide significant benefits and protection for workers and the people,” she said. However, other labour activists expressed concern about the risk to workers already living in poverty and struggling to survive on their wages. Protesters demanding ILO action in Yangon on March 10 (Photo: 4 Yangon resistance brotherhood groups) Demonstrators in Kachin State’s Hpakant Township call for ILO action against the Myanmar junta under Article 33 of the agency’s constitution on May 19 (Photo: Supplied) Article 33 allows ILO member countries to suspend collaborative economic activity with or assistance to other members for noncompliance with ILO conventions, said Ye Naing Win, General Secretary of the Coordination Committee of Trade Unions. He noted that some countries that support democracy and human rights and are economically more advanced have provided vital development aid or special trade privileges to developing countries like Myanmar to help reduce poverty or create jobs, and the ILO’s recent action might affect those privileges. “Workers don't support businesses closing down. Why? Because it threatens their survival, their livelihood. No human being would accept that. It’s not just one person affected by a job loss, there are families behind them,” he said. “The saying, ‘it can't get worse than this’ may be true in principle,” he continued. “But how long can we keep putting off the real problem of starvation? People need to work to survive.” Disagreements about the ILO action have been especially visible between domestic and overseas worker organisations. While overseas workers believe the action aims to cut off the military junta’s revenue, domestic workers’ organisations worry that hundreds of thousands of workers’ employment will be impacted by the sanctions. The garment industry is one of the largest export sectors, earning billions of US dollars in annual revenue. Garment exports totalled US $3.6 billion in the 2020-21 financial year, an amount that could fall drastically as a result of the ILO sanctions. Ye Naing Win also noted that more Myanmar manufacturers lack the capacity to produce finished garments independently and instead work on a subcontracting basis, with garment workers receiving only small payments for their labour. He worried that sanctions would hit these low-wage workers harder than the military junta. The sanctions may block channels for international money transfers that workers rely on or, as in 2000, lead to the suspension of international orders and cause all production in some factories to grind to a halt, according to a businessman from Yangon who had been working in the city’s industrial zones for more than 30 years. However, the businessman said, some employers in Myanmar have experience of working under ILO sanctions from the previous round, which were in place from 2000 to 2012, and may be able to find breathing room and soften the impact on their workers. "It's the bosses who worry, the factory owners,” he said. “Whoever imposes the blockade, once it’s in place, both the employers and workers will suffer. I hope that unlike the situation in 2000, this time it will be done to minimise the effects on employees.” There was some hope that the domination of Chinese businesses among foreign investors in Myanmar’s garment industry, in contrast to the heavier involvement of American and European businesses two decades ago, would make for a less severe impact this time, he added. The military council’s labour ministry issued a statement on June 6, the day after the ILO’s action, calling the agency’s decision politically motivated and claiming it had no legal force. However, Maung Myint, also known as Mingin Maung Myint, a leading member of the military proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party, told a junta-controlled news outlet that the action at the ILC was not trivial and that the UN agency had treated the regime unjustly by not granting it diplomatic recognition at the conference. The European Union expressed support for the ILO decision in a June 6 statement and urged for the junta to implement the agency’s recommendations without delay. Many of its member states are home to businesses that are important buyers of Myanmar’s garment exports. The labour ministry of the publicly mandated National Unity Government also issued a statement saying the ILO’s decision could affect the junta politically and financially, and would be an important factor in the downfall of military rule in Myanmar.

UN labour agency revives sanctions against Myanmar junta

While some workers’ organisations opposed to military rule welcome the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO’s) decision, some labour advocates voiced concern about the impact on workers already struggling to survive

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