SAI joined the Fair Labor Association, American Apparel & Footwear Association, and Initiative for Compliance and Sustainability—on behalf of international garment, footwear, and travel goods buyers—in signing a joint statement urging Myanmar State Counselor, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and the Myanmar Government to work with the ILO and other stakeholders to ensure that labor law reform and implementation meet international standards and best practices. We also urge the Government of Myanmar to respect freedom of association and other internationally protected labor rights, and to refrain from continued measures to deny these rights in practice.
We are particularly concerned over serious and repeated violations of the fundamental rights to freely associate, to organize, and to bargain collectively in both law and in practice in Myanmar. Recently proposed amendments, some already adopted, not only fail to address the concerns raised by the International Labor Organization (ILO) and other key stakeholders, but would make the laws worse in many respects.
