Asia-Pacific

After the military coup in Myanmar two years ago, 16 labour organisations were declared illegal by the Burmese military on 2 March 2021, making it very difficult for workers to organise.

The junta continued to exert pressure on trade unions supporting the Civil Disobedience Movement, and their leaders were driven into hiding from military arrest. At least five of the regional and township level unions of the Confederation of Trade Unions, Myanmar, (CTUM) have been pressured by the local labour administrators and have returned their registration certificates.

Affiliates of the CTUM and member organisations of the Myanmar Labour Alliance were pressured by officials and employers to attend the tripartite meetings held by the ministry of labour under the junta. In a meeting on 24 February 2023 in Yangon, the ministry pressured the attending trade unions to dissociate from the so-called ‘terrorist organisations’, namely the NUG, the National Unity Consultative Council, and “collaborators”, namely Maung Maung, Khaingzar Aung and Pho Sandar Soe of the CTUM.

In Malaysia, the government proposed new amendments to the Trade Union Bill in July 2022, including a “fourth schedule” which links offences under the bill to Penal Code provisions relating to acts of terrorism and organised crime. It would mean that if a union commits any offence in the ‘fourth schedule’, the Director-General could cancel or withdraw the union’s certification or withdraw permission for affiliation to global unions. The unions feared that such provisions could cripple them.

In Hong Kong, independent trade unions have been subject to information surveillance since the enactment of the National Security Law. Since 2021, 11 trade unions have been requested by the Registrar of Trade Unions to submit detailed information to account for their activities and the Registrar could initiate de-registration procedures if their activities are considered out of the scope of the registered purposes.

The government announced new rules for the registration of trade unions on 16 September 2022. Anyone in Hong Kong planning to set up a trade union would have to sign a declaration pledging they would not threaten national security. Union founders would need to confirm the objectives of their groups are lawful and the bodies would not engage in any activities that could endanger national security or contravene any other law. Given the number of unions that had already had to disband following the imposition of the National Security Law in 2020, this latest announcement caused deep concern.

In June 2022, the Labour Department proposed creating a new chief labour officer position for three years to assume the position of Registrar of Trade Unions. The registrar would be responsible for drafting amendments to the Trade Unions Ordinance, such as refusing or cancelling the registration of organisations “in the interest of national security” and prohibiting people who had been convicted of offences from endangering national security by becoming officials of workers’ groups.

The department planned to introduce the bill to the Legislative Council in the first half of 2023.

Since the Taliban took over Afghanistan in August 2021, the leadership of the National Union of Afghanistan Workers and Employees (NUAWE) were forced to go into exile. Carrying out trade union activities has become extremely dangerous for trade unionists remaining in the country, and they were under constant surveillance and faced threats to their lives.

In December 2022, NXP Manufacturing in Thailand fired 13 union leaders on false charges.

The NXP Manufacturing Workers’ Union’s congress in October 2019 passed a resolution assigning a representative to act on the company’s failure to respect the collective agreement. In August 2020, the union filed a lawsuit over NXP’s non-compliance with the collective agreement at the central labour court. In February 2022, the union’s case was dismissed and the court ruled that the union did not have the right to sue.

Focusing on improving the relationship with the employer, the union decided not to appeal the ruling. In return, NXP accused union members of having falsified the congress minutes, a serious violation of company regulations, and dismissed 13 of them.

The United Rank and File Employees of J&T Express-FFW (URFE-J&T-FFW) in Laguna, the Philippines, staged a three-day strike beginning on 4 June 2022 to protest the illegal suspension and subsequent dismissal of the union’s president, Jesher Fariñas, based on trumped-up charges. J&T Express is a global logistics company that provides personal delivery services.

Prior to the union president’s dismissal, workers at the enterprise had complained of the non-payment of overtime and the night differential, and a reduction in benefits. The union followed all legal procedures, including due notice and a strike vote, before staging the strike on 4 June in which 300 union members took part.

A heavy police presence and interference marred an otherwise peaceful strike. This was despite existing labour laws that prohibit the presence of state security forces within 50m of the strike area. The union leaders were also badgered by police, who demanded rally permits from the striking workers, even though these were not a legal requirement.

The country’s National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB) eventually intervened and tried to mediate between the two parties.

On 6 June, after six hours of dialogue, the union and the company agreed to a speedy voluntary arbitration process to determine whether the union’s president was illegally dismissed. Both parties also agreed to technical assistance to settle the issues relating to unpaid overtime and the night differential, the reduction in benefits, and unpaid allowances.

Management agreed to welcome back all striking workers and to refrain from retaliatory action.

On 21 September 2022, within three days of starting his new job at Best Choice Garment Co. in Myanmar, a line worker was fired when the factory discovered that he had been a trade union leader. He was told that he had been blacklisted and would not be given work in any other garment factory in the Anawrahta Industrial Zone in Yangon.

At the end of March 2022, the Electronics Industry Employees’ Union, Northern Region (EIEUNR) exposed union busting at Molex Malaysia, an electronics components manufacturer, as workers were preparing for a secret ballot on joining EIEUNR.

Management organised a townhall meeting with workers, urging them not to vote for the union and threatening that they would risk losing bonuses and benefits if they were to do so.

The union lodged a complaint against Molex Malaysia with the Industrial Relations Department (IRD). It submitted a recording in which the human resources director was threatening to cut benefits if workers decided to vote for the union. The union had another recording with similar threats, where the HR director instructed managerial and supervisory staff to convince operators to vote against the union.

The Industrial Relations Department initiated an investigation and put the secret ballot on hold.

The matter had not been resolved by mid-September 2022 and EIEUNR launched an online petition to call on Molex to stop union busting and to respect the workers’ right to choose their own union and to bargain collectively with the employer.

In June 2022, the Korea Federation of Banks (KFB) suddenly dismissed three former officials from the Korean Finance Industry Union (KFIU).

The reason for the dismissals dates back to an incident in 2017, where the three officials led a visit to the KFB office to protest against the forced introduction of performance salary reforms by the Financial Services Commission for public corporations, and to demand the restoration of collective bargaining. There were clashes during the visit, and the three officials were later charged and given prison and probation sentences.

To avoid repeating similar incidents, the KFIU and the bankers’ association agreed not to press charges or retaliate further against the three union leaders. The association even assured the KFIU as recently as May 2022 that they would avoid any retaliation. It came as a shock, therefore, when the three former officials were issued the notice a month later.

PT Tainan Enterprises Indonesia consistently refused to reinstate union leaders fired in 2021 for forming a local union.

When the Garment and Textile Trade Union Federation (Garteks) formed a factory-level branch at the company’s factory in North Jakarta in August 2021, the union president Ahmad Faisal, vice-president Tulam, and vice secretary Hendra Radista were dismissed on the pretext of refusing to transfer to a different factory. The Indonesian Ministry of Manpower recommended on 24 December 2021 that the three Garteks union leaders should be reinstated. The recommendation was ignored however, and in February 2022 Ahmad Faisal, Tulam and Hendra Radista signed a settlement agreement with the company, accepting severance pay on the condition that the company stop union busting.

However, management ignored that agreement and continued to persecute union members. After the dismissal of the founding leaders, Rahmawati became local union president at PT Tainan in August 2021. In January 2022, the company started issuing warning letters to Rahmawati, claiming she was unable to achieve the production target. After three warning letters, Rahmawati was dismissed on 18 May. Garteks criticised the garment company for union busting and filed a complaint with the North Jakarta labour office.

In August 2022, the industrial relations mediator ruled that the company should reinstate Rahmawati in her original position with back pay.

Following interventions from IndustriALL, the company signed a settlement agreement with Garteks whereby Rahmawati was to be reinstated to her original position on 1 November 2022.

Over 350 workers, members of the Indian Yamaha Motors Labour Association (IYMLA), began a sit-in strike at the India Yamaha Motors factory in Sriperumbudur near Chennai, India on 11 October 2022, in protest at management’s consistent refusal to recognise their union.

IYMLA members were demanding management hold wage talks with their union. Instead, the company management organised with the State Labour Department to sign a wage agreement with the company-supported minority union.

On 14 April 2022, the Mumbai Labour Union (MLU) in India submitted a charter of demands on behalf of its 3,500 members to management at Viraj Steel Limited, but management refused to negotiate. Shortly afterwards, 52 security guards in plant No.1, all members of the MLU, were transferred to another plant.

At the beginning of May, the MLU announced a strike for 16 May, citing harassment of union members, reduction in salary, lack of basic facilities like drinking water, chairs, tables, canteen facilities and toilets, as well as physical assaults on union members by thugs employed by management.

On 7 May, management at Viraj Steel Limited tried to hire contract workers at plant No.1, where permanent workers had previously been employed. The permanent workers tried to stop the contractor and contract workers from entering the workplace. In response, the employer filed a complaint with the police against the union representatives. The general secretary of the MLU and 70 representatives were arrested, and were still in police custody more than two weeks later.

Seven workers had their contracts terminated at Eastcrown Footwear Industries in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on 11 October 2022 after they tried to form a union.

Factory management denied the workers’ dismissals were related to union activity but would not elaborate.

The union was created in response to the bad working conditions imposed by the company. Workers were forced to work overtime, denied requests to take leave, and made to sit through meetings during break periods.

The factory first tried to get the unionists to join the factory’s own company union instead, but when the workers declined, their contracts were terminated.

The seven unionising workers who lost their contracts were Yousa, Sokna, Eam Sambath, Duong Soknang, Matt Vy, Sarem Tharim and Suong Sarin. Two more workers who had tried to help form the union, Duong Tola and Horn Srey Neang, received termination letters on 22 and 24 October respectively. Initially, 16 had joined to form the union, but six had withdrawn in the face of threats.

Three workers from the SYHJ Garment factory in Kandal’s Ang Snoul district, Cambodia, were fired without cause or notice on 20 April 2022. The dismissals came after they had formed a factory-level union in March.

The three workers filed a complaint with the Labour Ministry on the grounds that they were illegally fired for unionising and demanded their reinstatement.

In statements made in April 2022, the Bangladesh Apparel Workers Federation (BAWF) and the Bangladesh Garment and Industrial Workers Federation (BGIWF) denounced the overall anti-union climate in the garment sector. More than 50 per cent of the unions registered since the Rana Plaza incident were yellow unions and have remained inactive over the years. Independent trade unions were not being registered by the labour department, while unions backed by factory owners have proliferated in the sector.

In Bangladesh, factory owners were still largely against trade unions and they forced workers not to join any union. In many cases, factory owners hired external forces to threaten workers who joined a union and used the police to harass union members. When an active federation in a factory filed an application for registration, labour department officials often imposed conditions in addition to those specified by the labour laws and rejected the application.

As part of their Daily Download meetings, which all employees are expected to attend, Apple stores began to present anti-union briefings.

It is illegal in Australia to hold such ‘captive meetings’ to present anti-union messaging, so Apple claimed the anti-union part of the meeting was ‘voluntary’, and that staff could leave if they wished. However, as one employee pointed out, anyone who chose to walk out of the meeting at that point would make themselves a target.

Apple then tried to rush through a new enterprise agreement with below-inflation wage rises and clauses that could see workers work up to 60 hours a week without overtime. This led to the Australian Services Union (ASU) and the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association (SDA) taking Apple to the Fair Work Commission, on 26 August 2022, for breaching good faith bargaining principles.

The unions pointed out that staff were only made aware of the agreement on 3 August, and Apple refused requests to extend consultation with employees beyond 19 August. Apple also denied entry to union representatives at one of its stores.

On 8 June 2022, Sri Lankan President Gotabhaya Rajapakse declared electricity and health essential public services, thereby outlawing strikes in these sectors.

The immediate aim of the decree, which was issued under the country’s draconian Essential Public Services Act (EPSA), was to stop a planned strike by Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) workers. The key sector has a more than 26,000-strong workforce. The Ceylon Electricity Board Engineers Union (CEBEU) and the Ceylon Electricity Board United Trade Union Alliance (CEBUTA) called the strike.

According to the EPSA decree, any employee of the designated institutions who does not attend work faced “conviction, after summary trial before a magistrate”, would be “liable to rigorous imprisonment” of two to five years, and would face an additional fine of between 2,000 and 5,000 rupees (US$5–13).

Further, the decree stated that the “movable and immoveable property” of those convicted could be seized by the state, and his or her name “removed from any register maintained for profession or vocation”. It was also deemed an offence for any person to “incite, induce or encourage any other person” to not attend work through a “physical act or by any speech or writing”. As a result of the decree, unions were forced to cancel the strike.

On 11 November 2022, police arrested 70 protesting community health workers, nurses, paramedics and doctors including Shamim Ara, the General Secretary of All Sindh Lady Health Workers & Employees Union (ASLHWEU) in Pakistan.

ASLHWEU had been campaigning for better working conditions and demanding the health risk allowance be restored as part of workers’ salaries. With no response from the provincial government, the workers began to march towards the Chief Minister’s House. A strong police force was deployed using water cannon, tear gas and batons against the health workers. The 70 workers arrested were held in detention overnight. All the women involved were released in the early morning of 12 November, while 12 doctors and paramedics were kept in custody until 13 November, when a magistrate ordered their release.

December 2022 marked an unprecedented attack on the right to strike in South Korea as the government invoked emergency laws, issuing ‘return to work’ orders against individual truck drivers to break a strike which had begun on 24 November.

Throughout 2022, truck drivers in South Korea had organised several collective actions in front of the HiteJinro premises in Seoul and Incheon. HiteJinro, the largest liquor maker in the country, also owns Suyang Logistics, a freight consignment company. Drivers, who are classified as independent contractors, demanded an increase in pay rates to meet the sharp increase in transportation fees due to skyrocketing fuel costs. They had been benefitting from ‘safe rates’, a landmark scheme for maintaining decent pay for truck drivers. However, the trial period was set to end in December 2022 and companies, such as HiteJinro, had been lobbying hard to stop it from being renewed.

Instead of bargaining with the drivers’ union (Korean Public Service and Transport Workers’ Union Cargo Truckers’ Solidarity Division - KPTU-TruckSol), HiteJinro cancelled the contracts of 130 workers. The company also filed a legal action for damages of KRW 2.8 billion (US$20 million) against striking workers. Managers also called in police forces to break up the workers’ peaceful protests. In October, police arrested 15 unionised truck drivers picketing a factory in Incheon.

The government struck the last blow to the drivers’ movement with its return-to-work orders. Government agencies also used investigatory powers to intimidate union leaders and threatened strikers with criminal penalties and financial claims for damages.

On 9 December, in the face of the government’s anti-union stance, including the criminalisation of the strike and under the threat of criminal punishment for non-compliance with return-to-work orders, 62 per cent of KPTU-TruckSol members voted to end the strike. Meanwhile, the government backtracked on its promise to renew ‘safe rates’, saying that it had no intention of cooperating with opposition lawmakers to pass the proposed legislation, and that their previous proposal for an extension was only valid before workers went on strike.

In Myanmar, five unionists, including two from the Industrial Workers’ Federation of Myanmar (IWFM), were violently attacked and arrested by military security officers in Yangon on 13 September 2022. The unionists were arrested on their way to a peaceful protest, calling on the United Nations (UN) to recognise the National Unity Government of Myanmar and its permanent representative at the UN, U Kyaw Moe Tun.

A group of security officers in plain clothes appeared, using sticks to beat the protestors and firing a few shots. A total of 29 protestors were arrested. Among them were Daw Zuu Zuu Ra Khaing and Daw Yamin Kay Thwe Khaig from IWFM, U Nay Min Tun and U Than Aung from the Building and Wood Workers Federation of Myanmar (BWFM), and the driver of the Confederation of Trade Unions of Myanmar (CTUM) U Than Zaw.

In South Korea, Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) filed a KRW 47 billion (US$ 35.3 million) damage claim suit against leaders of the Korea Metal Workers’ Union (KMWU) Geoje Tongyeong Goseong Shipbuilding Subcontracting Branch on 26 August 2022, alleging financial losses incurred during a strike.

The strike had begun in June, when more than 10,000 subcontracted workers asked for a 30 per cent pay rise. The contract workers said they were only paid the minimum wage of KRW 9,160 per hour, even for critical work such as welding, and even though many had more than 10 years’ experience.

Around 100 subcontractors occupied the main dock at the shipyard run by DSME in the southern city of Geoje. The union called off the strike on 22 July after 51 days, when the workers accepted a 4.5 per cent pay rise. The deal also included better time-off, benefits and other improvements.

DSME claimed it had filed the lawsuit in order to prevent the recurrence of strikes.

In Cambodia, union representatives Noem Sokhoeun, Sean Sokleab and Pen Sophorn were briefly arrested by police on 31 May 2022 amid a strike at Can Sports Shoe Co, Ltd., in Kampong Chhnang.

At least 5,600 workers at Can Sports Shoe supported the strike, demanding the payment of delayed wages and overtime, and access to food vendors. At least 1,000 workers gathered outside the factory in Samakki Meanchey district’s Sethei commune, blocking a road.

The factory rejected workers’ claims on wages, and only agreed to address the workers’ other demands after union leaders were arrested and required to sign agreements by thumb print stating that they would not carry out any further activities that would cause “unrest” in the factory. Noem Sokhoeun, one of the arrested union leaders, said he had also been accused of incitement to commit a felony, which he denied.

In Cambodia, four female strikers at the NagaWorld Hotel and Casino complex in Phnom Penh, Sok Thavuth, Net Chakriya, Sang Sophal and Chhay Bora, could face up to 10 years’ imprisonment following a lawsuit filed in October 2022 by their employer NagaCorp, alleging charges of breaking and entering, property damage and unlawful confinement. They were issued with a summons to appear in Phnom Penh Municipal Court. The lawsuit was the first filed by NagaCorp against current and former casino employees, after hundreds went on strike in protest of mass layoffs.

For more than two decades, the management of the NagaWorld Hotel and Casino complex has refused to fully recognise the Union of Khmer Employees of Naga World (LRSU). Earlier in the year, LRSU leaders had been arrested and kept in pre-trial detention after a police raid at the union’s offices.

On 14 April 2022, Air New Zealand management responded to rolling strike action by cabin staff by selectively targeting striking workers and suspending them from duties. Some strikers were suspended for six days without pay “for taking collective action”, the E Tū union reported.

The 44 cabin crew leaders were striking for better conditions for crew members who had returned to work after a period of redundancy during the pandemic. Over 800 staff had been either furloughed or laid off during the last two years. Many of the returning workers were only being paid about the minimum wage of NZ$21.20 an hour.

The Myanmar Pou Chen shoe factory in the Shwe Pyi Thar Township dismissed 27 workers on 27 October 2022 for going on strike. The Pou Chen Workers’ Union, affiliated to the Industrial Workers’ Federation of Myanmar (IWFM), had submitted a request to negotiate a pay rise to the Labour Office under the military junta several months earlier. However, negotiations never got off the ground and they decided to take industrial action, beginning on 25 October 2022.

When they were dismissed on 27 October, workers were told it was because they had broken the factory rules by being absent from work. When the strike began, they were prevented by supervisors from entering the premises, and clashes broke out on 27 October.

Two more workers were dismissed in the following days. The workers were planning to file a complaint with the Labour Office.

In India, the management of Slam Clothing Pvt Ltd., which has a factory near Chennai, locked out 150 workers, following the demand of the Garment and Fashion Workers Union (GAFWU) for the payment of outstanding wages. Instead of engaging with the union or approaching the government for permission to close the factory as required under the law, the management chose to block workers from entering the factory. The management also forged workers’ signatures on resignation letters.

GAFWU raised the matter of the illegal lock-out with the Labour Commissioner’s office. Due to the management’s refusal to take part in the conciliation process, no agreement was reached between the management and the workers. Thus, the Labour Commissioner’s office referred the matter to an industrial tribunal for adjudication. On 6 August 2022, the industrial tribunal awarded reinstatement of the 150 workers illegally locked out by the management, along with payment of back wages and seniority benefits.

In Nepal, health workers at the Manipal Teaching Hospital in Pokhara began forming a union, the UNIPHIN, which formally submitted a demand for recognition with the Labour Office in April 2022. Despite meeting all the legal requirements of the registration process, the hospital refused to recognise the union or to engage in collective bargaining over workers’ demands for better working conditions. Prior to their official recognition, the workers had faced police intervention and management suppression when they had voiced their concerns to management.

Faced with management’s refusal to negotiate, in June 2022, the union organised a strike in which more than 500 hospital workers participated. In the wake of the 28-day strike, union and management found an agreement on several of the workers’ demands.

On 26 July 2022, 350 construction workers building a coal power plant in South Sumatra, Indonesia went on strike, after company PT Shenhua Guohua Lion Power Indonesia (SGLPI) refused to recognise the workers’ trade union or to apply Indonesian statutory labour protections. Their demands were backed by the labour inspectorate which reminded the SGLPI that it must follow national laws on health and safety, working conditions and freedom of association.

The strike, which lasted four days, was successful, and the SGLPI finally agreed to recognise the trade union and to engage in collective bargaining.

At the end of September 2022, Qantas unilaterally reissued a Notice of Employee Representational Rights (NERR) to its workforce. The airline flagged ‘‘two streams” of bargaining and proposed to remove the Senior Professional Group from the coverage of the next enterprise agreement. Doing so would exclude 1,300 workers from the collective agreement and push them onto individual contracts.

The Australian Services Union (ASU) wrote to Qantas, raising concerns about the airline’s proposals. It also repeated a request that, during the bargaining process, Qantas disclose relevant information, as required by the Fair Work Act to make bargaining more efficient. Qantas did not supply all the requested information, which was denounced by ASU as bad faith bargaining.

On 11 October, cabin crew affiliated with the Flight Attendants Association of Australia (FAAA) filed a dispute in the Fair Work Commission over Qantas’ approach to good faith bargaining and sought a protected action ballot, after workers faced threats of outsourcing to coerce them into working much longer hours, with no extension of rest breaks.

On 7 July 2022, Sia Jampathong, president of the Textile, Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation (TGLWF) of Thailand, and four student labour activists were indicted for violating pandemic restrictions on large gatherings during a protest outside the Government House in Bangkok in 2021.

Jampathong did not deny the protest breached the Emergency Decree and the Disease Control Act (precautions were taken, as they wore masks). She believed, however, that the authorities were selectively enforcing the rules to keep the labour movement in line. Jampathong and her fellow activists were targeted after leading a campaign to pay unpaid wages to 1,250 laid-off factory workers. The campaign proved successful and in May 2022 the company was forced to pay up.

In Sri Lanka, on 3 August 2022, police arrested Joseph Stalin, General Secretary of the Ceylon Teachers’ Union (CTU), at the union’s head office. The police claimed the arrest was due to the violation of a court order banning a protest march near the police headquarters on 28 May. The union leader was remanded until 12 August.

The police also arrested the secretary of the Bank of Ceylon branch of the Ceylon Bank Employees Union (CBEU), Dhananjaya Siriwardana, and its former branch president, Palitha Atampala. They were accused of forcibly entering the Presidential residence on 13 July. Both union leaders were released on bail.

On 27 September, Kara Taggaoa and Larry Balbuena were served an arrest warrant and pre-trial order by the Quezon City Regional Trial Court in the Philippines for the alleged robbery of a police officer during a July 2020 rally. Kara Taggaoa was then the spokesperson of the League of Filipino Students and at the time of her arrest was the international affairs officer of Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU). Larry Balbuena was president of the Pasiklab Operators and Drivers Association (PASODA).

On 10 October 2022, the two trade unionists were arrested on criminal charges of “direct assault and robbery”. They pleaded not guilty and were granted bail.

They were re-arrested when leaving the court under a fresh charge of direct assault against a police officer during the same rally in 2020. Both were taken to the custodial facility at Camp Karingal, where they were presented with an un-served arrest warrant, issued on 7 December 2021, and their ID cards were confiscated. Both complaints were filed by Police Chief Master Sergeant Feliciano Evangelio of Quezon City Policy Department who had accused the 2020 protesters of inflicting injury and robbing police officers. They were released on bail on 11 October. Their trial dates have not been scheduled at the time of writing. The charges entail long prison terms.

Khaing Thinzar, head of communications at the Confederation of Trade Unions of Myanmar (CTUM), and Ei Phyu Phyu Myint, a member of the Industrial Workers Federation of Myanmar (IWFM), were ambushed as they took a taxi home after attending a peaceful demonstration on the outskirts of Yangon on 20 April 2022. A car rammed into their vehicle and six soldiers then leapt out of the car, seized the women and beat them, before taking them and the driver into custody.

Both were convicted under section 505A of the Penal Code. They have been tortured and sexually abused during custody. Together with taxi driver Nyan Sein, they were sentenced to three years’ imprisonment with hard labour.

The 20 April demonstration was organised by members of the Myanmar Labour Alliance (MLA), the CTUM and IWFM in protest at the military regime. The Alliance demanded the restoration of a democratic society and end of military rule.

Since the military junta took power in February 2021 dozens of trade unionists have been killed, and tens of thousands of workers taking part in the Civil Disobedience Movement have been dismissed or blacklisted.

On 30 December 2022, central committee member of the Confederation of Trade Unions of Myanmar (CTUM), Moe Gyi, was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment and fined 1 million kyat (US$476) at Dagon Myohit District Court on charges under section 124 of the Penal Code. Under pressure, he resigned from the CTUM central committee.

U Pyi Paing Ko Ko, director of Let’s Help Each Other (LEHO), a member of Myanmar Labour Alliance, was arrested on 3 May 2022 and sentenced to a seven-year imprisonment under section 51C of the Anti-Terrorism Act. Kha Kha, a staff member of LHEO, was under arrest warrant on multiple charges.

Arrest warrants were issued to 29 CTUM central committee members and many more regional federation leaders and labour organisation leaders. Under the Code of Criminal Procedure, amended by the junta on 14 February 2021, offences under sections 505A, 124C and 124D are non bailable and subject to arrest without a warrant.

On 8 December 2022, Thet Hnin Aung, General Secretary of the Myanmar Industries Craft and Services Trade Union Federation (MICS-TUFs) was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment with hard labour and a fine.

Youn Taeg-gun, first vice president of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), was arrested and detained on 4 May 2022 for his leading role in organising a general strike on 20 October 2021. Youn led the strike in part because, at the time, KCTU President Yang Kyeung-soo was in detention on similar charges. Like President Yang, Youn was charged with violation of the Infectious Disease Control Act on Demonstration and Assembly, despite the KCTU’s proper observance of Covid-19 protocols.

On 5 August 2022, the Seoul Central Municipal Court ruled that there was no legal justification to continue to hold Youn. He was released after 94 days in detention, following a strong international campaign on his behalf.

On 25 April 2022, Bongju Lee, President of the Korean Public Service and Transport Workers’ Union Cargo Truckers’ Solidarity Division (KPTU-TruckSol) and Geon-yeong Kim, KPTU-TruckSol Incheon Regional Branch Chair were threatened with arrest by authorities.

The threat of arrest related to protests held more than seven months ago were made despite either man having been formally indicted on charges related to the warrant. Authorities were preparing to make the arrests using powers that allow the police to detain suspects while they are under investigation, though both men had pledged to cooperate fully with any enquiries.

The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) intervened to prevent these politically motivated arrests.

In India, police detained 19 people, all members and leaders of the Surat Diamond Workers’ Union (SDWU) and took them to Katargam police station on 2 October 2022. The union had announced it would organise a rally on Gandhi Jayanti day, from Katargam to Hirabaug in Varachha, to press for various demands. The arrests took place before they could even begin the rally. The union’s state president Ramesh Jileria, Surat unit president Bhavesh Tank and the president of the Indian Trade Union Congress (INTUC) in Gujarat, Naishad Desai, were among those present. They were released in the evening.

Among the workers’ and trade unions’ demands were legal protections for diamond workers under labour laws and the abolition of professional taxes on diamond polishers. Katargam police said they had detained the organisers and other members because permission for the rally had been denied for reasons of “law and order”.

In India, Mrinal Kanti Shome, the General Secretary of the Assam Majoori Shramik Union (AMSU) was arrested on 22 May 2022, together with Dharitri Sharma, the Cachar District Committee Secretary of the AMSU. The two men had been at the forefront of protests by tea estate workers at the Dolu tea estate against the illegal acquisition of land for the new Silchar Airport. Nearly 2,000 workers stood to lose their jobs if the acquisition went ahead.

Mrinal Kanti Shome was questioned without any warrant or order and detained for nearly 30 hours without food. Criminal charges were then brought against him for “inciting protests”.

National security police raided the offices of the disbanded Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU) on the morning of 31 March 2022. The police also went to the homes of the former chair of the HKCTU, Joe Wong, former vice-chair Leo Tang and ex-treasurer Chung Chung-fai. All three were arrested, taken for questioning, and their homes were searched. Former general secretary Lee Cheuk-yan, who has been imprisoned for a year now for his trade union activities, was also questioned. The national security police also raided 10 premises, including the offices of the union and homes of the four unionists, and took away documents and computers.

The union had allegedly refused to comply with a police request for information based on the Societies Ordinance. They said the police had applied for warrants to search premises related to the organisation.

Police made the data request to HKCTU on 17 February, demanding information about its operations, activities, sources of income and expenditure, as well as any connections with fellow unions and foreign organisations. Five former HKCTU members, including Wong, Tang and Chung, had handed in the group’s reply at police headquarters on 24 March.

The HKCTU was Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy union coalition, representing almost 100 affiliated organisations with around 145,000 members, before its forced dissolution in October 2021.

Despite disbandment, the Security Bureau issued a statement saying any organisation or its members would “remain criminally liable” for offences committed.

General Secretary of International Domestic Workers Federation (IDWF) and former Chief Executive of the now-disbanded Hong Kong Confederation of a Trade Unions (HKCTU), Elizabeth Tang Yin-ngor, was taken away by National Security Police officers on 9 March 2023, after visiting her husband, imprisoned union leader, Lee Cheuk-yan.

Tang was arrested on “suspicion that she had colluded with foreign forces to endanger national security”. Tang had recently returned to Hong Kong after leaving for the United Kingdom in 2021.

Her husband, former HKCTU general secretary Lee Cheuk-yan, is currently detained under the National Security Law. He and two other ex-leaders, Chow Hang-tung and Albert Ho, stand accused of incitement to subversion. The case was transferred to the High Court in September 2022, where the highest penalty for incitement to subversion is 10 years’ imprisonment. Lee was denied bail in December, when a judge ruled there were insufficient grounds for believing that he would not continue to “commit acts endangering national security” if bail was granted.

Tang was released the next day and her computer, mobile phone and passport remain confiscated.

In the week following Tang’s arrest, 13 trade union and labour organisation activists, including from the defunct HKCTU, were taken away by national security police for questioning. The police conducted home searches and took away the computers and mobile phones of the activists.

On 26 November 2022, Chhim Sithar, President of Labor Rights Supported Union of Khmer Employees (LRSU) and one of the leaders battling for union rights at NagaWorld Casino Hotel, was detained at the airport in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and then jailed while returning from the ITUC Congress in Melbourne, Australia.

She was rearrested for allegedly violating her bail terms, which arose from bogus charges of “incitement to social chaos”. She had been arrested on 4 January 2022 for organising workers’ strikes at the NagaWorld Casino Hotel. Neither she nor her lawyer were informed of these bail conditions.

In Myanmar, since the 2021 military coup, at least 402 workers, trade union members and leaders were subjected to arbitrary arrest and were unjustly incarcerated on trumped-up charges. Many public sector workers were subject to arrest as part of reprisals targeting those who took part in strike action, or who subsequently supported the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) – teachers, bank workers, transport workers, doctors and nurses. Thousands of teachers throughout the country were blacklisted and targeted for arrest, because the military feared they would join or support the CDM. All those opposing the military regime faced trials before the military courts and heavy prison sentences, including life imprisonment.

In China, independent labour advocates Wang Jianbing and Huang Xueqin were taken away by unidentified public security officers at Guangzhou airport on 19 September 2021. Since their arrest, their location has remained unknown. Wang had been organising pneumoconiosis workers, as well as family members of the victims of this occupational disease, which affects the lungs.

Shortly after their arrest, public security searched their apartment and summoned around 40 persons related to Wang and Huang for details of Wang’s activist networks, and worker gatherings. His parents in Tianshui, Gansu province, were threatened by public security not to speak about their son’s situation. His family were later informed that Wang was charged with inciting subversion of state power and was detained at Guangzhou No. 1 Detention Center. The lawyer hired by Wang’s family was not given access to Wang until 1^st April 2022, through a virtual meeting with his client. According to the lawyer, Wang has been put in solitary confinement for five months and was transferred to the above detention centre only in March 2022. He suffers from poor health, mental torment and depression as a result of months of solitary confinement.

In Malaysia, Sabri bin Umar, a migrant worker, was whipped while in detention at the Tawau prison on 23 June 2022, despite there being an appeal pending at the High Court regarding his conviction. Sabri bin Umar was accused of not having a valid entry and work permit and was later charged under Immigration Act no. 1959/63. However, easily accessible evidence shows that Bin Umar had been a documented migrant worker for the past seven years, and that he was employed by Fu Yee Corporation Sdn Bhd in Tawau, Sabah at the time. His work permit had also been renewed by the Immigration Department in 2022 and was valid for a year.

During the trial, Bin Umar did not have access to representation, and the prosecution presented false evidence leading to his unfair conviction. On 19 April 2022, Bin Umar was sentenced by the Session Court to an 11-month imprisonment and five whippings.

The Immigration Act was amended and, as of August 2002, the sentence of whipping was introduced for use against undocumented migrants. According to the Prisons Department records, 47,914 foreigners were found to have violated the Immigration Act from 2002 to 2008. Of these, 34,923 were whipped.

In April 2022, three garment workers at Sioen Myanmar Garment were arrested for their involvement in the civil disobedience movement. Among the three was a union leader detained after sharing political posts on social media. The three were later released.

In Sri Lanka, President Gotabhaya Rajapakse imposed a state of emergency on 6 May 2022 in response to a second one-day general strike on 5 May calling for him to resign. The military were deployed in the free trade zones (FTZ) against hundreds of thousands of FTZ workers who took part in the 28 April and 5 May general strikes along with millions of other workers around the country.

The Board of Investment (BOI) – the state authority under which FTZs operate – claimed that it had been “communicating with the Sri Lanka Police and the Army to ensure the safety of all the workers in order to facilitate transporting them to all respective factories without a hitch”. A spokesperson for the BOI added that the action was taken because “groups of protestors entered the facilities and called out the workers to participate in the industrial actions”. FTZ workers willingly joined the strike to take action against their intolerable living conditions.

In the Katunayake Free Trade Zone, at least one Electricity Board worker was arrested in the days following the general strike. It was reported that three more were arrested but later released following legal intervention.

Since August 2021, when it took power in Afghanistan, the Taliban has severely restricted the rights to peaceful assembly and to freedom of expression, and has banned protests that did not have prior approval from the Justice Ministry in Kabul.

In South Korea, the police banned a demonstration of 499 participants by the Korean Public Service and Transport Workers’ Union just two days after it announced a policy to allow smaller demonstrations near the Office of the President. Conflict between the new government and labour was steadily mounting following its hardline response to the Cargo Truckers solidarity strike.

The union called the strike, which began on 7 June 2022, to demand that the government extend a freight rate system guaranteeing basic wages for truck drivers to cope with surging fuel costs (known as ‘safe rates’).

In addition to banning the demonstration, the authorities also took a hard line on picketing. By 10 June, a total of 30 striking truckers had been taken into police custody for allegedly obstructing business.

The strike was suspended on 14 June, when Korean Public Service and Transport Workers’ Union Cargo Truckers’ Solidarity Division (KPTU-TruckSol) reached an agreement with the South Korean Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transport on the continuation of the safe rates system. The Ministry promised to “continue to propel forward the safe rates system and discuss expansion to other freight types”.

However, the dispute further escalated later in the year as the government invoked emergency laws, issuing ‘return to work’ orders against individual drivers to break another truck drivers’ strike in December.

Alipio “Ador” Juat, a workers’ rights advocate and an organiser of the workers’ union Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), and Elizabeth “Loi” Magbanua, also a full-time organiser for KMU, disappeared in Manila, the Philippines, on 3 May 2022. They had a meeting in Barangay Punturin, Valenzuela, with other labour organisers. They left after the meeting ended at around 7pm and have not been seen since.

Loi and Ador had recently helped organise a campaign for the immediate payment of 10,000 Philippine Pesos (US$182) unemployment assistance for displaced workers and had been building a network to fight demolition threats in the Parola Compound in Tondo, Manila.

Two more prominent organisers of labourers went missing on 3 July. Elgene “Leleng” Mungcal and Ma. Elena “Cha” Cortez Pampoza had both been subject to red tagging, which refers to harassment and persecution because of suspected communist tendencies, death threats and surveillance because of an individual’s activism.

Family members of Ador and Loi filed a petition for a writ which was granted on 22 August by the Supreme Court. The two were believed to be victims of extrajudicial arrest and detention, and the military were thought to be behind their disappearance.

In September, the Court of Appeal ruled that some military officers and other officials were “accountable for the enforced disappearance and continued disappearance of Elizabeth ‘Loi’ Magbanua and Alipio ‘Ador’ Juat”.

Dyan Gumanao and Armand Dayoha were abducted on 10 January 2023 at a port in Cebu, the Philippines, and were detained by state security forces in a resort before they were rescued on 16 January 2023.

Gumanao and Dayoha were forced into an SUV and blindfolded by suspected elements of state security forces. According to the victims’ accounts, while they were being detained, they underwent interrogation and questioning about their political activities.

On 15 January, Dyan Gumanao was able to send information on where they were being held. On 16 January, family members and colleagues of the couple were able to rescue them.

Dayoha, 27, is an instructor at the University of the Philippines Cebu and organiser for the Alliance of Health Workers, while Gumanao, 28, is the project coordinator of the Community Empowerment Resource Network and regional coordinator of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers.

Weeks before the incident, both had confided to their families and colleagues that they were under surveillance and had been harassed by people they believed were state agents.

In India, Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) officers baton-charged contract workers employed by the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) on 22 August 2022. The CISF was trying to disperse a demonstration at the gates of the power station in Ramagundam, Peddapalli district, in Telangana. The workers were protesting to demand that management negotiate a new work agreement. More than 20 protestors were injured and sent to hospital.

The NTPC workers had organised a meeting under the direction of the Joint Action Committee (JAC) to protest the management’s negligence over implementing the wage agreement, which had been pending for the past four years. Workers tried to make their way to the gate after the meeting to protest.

On 18 January 2023, the offices of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) and the Korean Health and Medical Workers’ Union’s (KHMU) were targeted by the Korean intelligence agency (NIS).

On the morning of the 18 January, the NIS and the National Police Agency (NPA) raided nearly a dozen of the KCTU offices over alleged espionage activities linked to North Korea. The NIS said it had obtained a search-and-seizure warrant from the court for the labour union on charges of violation of the National Security Act.

Along with the KCTU headquarters in central Seoul and the Korean Health and Medical Workers’ Union office on Yeouido, the authorities simultaneously raided the KIA Motor workers’ union office in Gwangju, as well as the houses of four union members suspected of allegedly breaching the law.

The KCTU officials attempted to block the officers from entering, demanding the raid be carried out in the presence of a lawyer, but the investigators pushed ahead and launched the raid, which lasted about 10 hours.

On the same day, around 20 investigators from the NIS and the NPA searched the premises of the KHMU, while more than 200 police officers filled the entrance to the KHMU building.

Raids continued on 19 January as police targeted construction unions affiliated to the KCTU and the Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU).

This is not the first act of repression by the Korean government against the union movement. In 2021, the president of the KCTU was arrested and in December 2022, the authorities tried to raid union offices to break a strike by truck drivers.

Between June and August 2022, there were repeated incidents of police attacks on former and current workers demonstrating outside the NagaWorld Hotel and Casino, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, resulting in injuries.

Former employees had been protesting outside the casino since NagaWorld laid off 1,329 workers in April 2021. The company had used the Covid-19 pandemic as an excuse to restructure and had targeted union members in its layoffs. The strike began because of this in December 2021. As protests continued, the local authorities arrested dozens of union activists, and police officers forcibly removed strikers from the site.

At least 10 protesters were injured on 27 June 2022 when police violently broke up a group of former and current casino workers. In another incident on 22 July, laid-off worker Pov Reaksmey was struck, and fell to the road, while she and other protesters tried to walk up to NagaWorld.

There were more violent clashes, notably on 11 August when strikers from the Labour Rights Supported Union of Khmer Employees of NagaWorld Hotel and Casino, who were trying to access the area in front of the casino, were attacked as they tried to move past metal barricades. Around 80 police and mixed security forces then began violently hitting, kicking and shoving the mostly women union members to stop them from passing the barricades. At least 17 women were injured during the clash. One woman was reportedly hit in the face by a uniformed officer, which left her momentarily unconscious and bleeding from a gash on her nose.

One of the protestors, Yang Sophorn, later received a letter from the Ministry of Labour warning her that she would be punished if she continued her “illegal activities”.

In November 2022, police in Zhengzhou, China beat workers protesting over working conditions and pay at Foxconn, the biggest factory for iPhones, as the country’s Covid-19 cases hit a new daily high. In video footage, police were shown kicking and hitting a protester with clubs after he grabbed a metal pole that had been used to strike him.

Thousands of employees had walked away from Foxconn following complaints about unsafe working conditions and amid severe frustration over Covid restrictions in various areas across China.

At least 16 textile workers from Regent Textile Mills, in Bangladesh were injured on 4 April 2022 when they were baton-charged by police. Several hundred workers from the factory, which closed on 16 March, gathered in front of its gates to collect salary arrears. The workers were not allowed to enter the factory and consequently ended up blocking the road. When the police tried to remove them, heavy-handedly, a clash ensued and the police resorted to a baton charge, leaving four workers requiring hospital treatment.

Further protests were held in June and July outside the factory, with workers continuing to demand their unpaid arrears for the past 10 months. Despite repeated promises to pay the outstanding salaries, Regent Textiles have failed to keep their word.