Instruction to Paper Submission

With the past two Asian Roundtables on Social Security (AROSS), we have come to the recognition that almost one third of our Asian population are living below poverty, that is below US$1.25 (ppp) per day, and requires urgent living protection. Social security is a basic right for all people as recognized by the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the ILO and other UN conventions. Building a social security system that provides universal and basic living protection to all people should be foremost goal of economic and social development a state should pursue. And the governments are urged to commit at least 6% of their GDP to providing social security for all by 2015. However, for the sake of Asian solidarity and fair share of economic progress, there is obligation and responsibility for the Asian governments to adopt a unified standard of social security minima, priority of which should include social assistance, minimum wage, health service, work injury insurance and pension. We have formulated the principles of the unified Asian social security minima. It is important for us now to look into the details of different minima in practice. As preferred by the past participants, the third AROSS is chosen for social assistance and minimum wage.

Below is our initial understanding of what Asian minima of minimum wage and social assistance should be. They are just proposed for your perusal and are subject for debate in your roundtable papers:

1. A. Minimum Wage:
   • 1. All Asian countries, except Singapore and Malaysia, ratified the Economics, Social and Cultural Rights Convention. Hence, all Asian governments should be responsible for implementing a full employment policy.
   • 2. All employees should be entitled to a minimum wage policy, which replacement rate of 40% to 60% of the country average wage. This is an international practice.
   • 3. The Euro Statistics indicated that 15 OECD countries on average have a minimum wage policy over 40%. Hence, the minimum level of minimum wage for Asian countries should not be less than 40%.
   • 4. Asian governments should provide public work for the working age people who are eligible for social assistance and should provide public them with the minimum wage. The public work should include hospitals, schools, roads, electricity, irrigation and other social infrastructure facilities. This is related to the importance of workfare.
   • 5. It is important that we should not pay attention only to the workers in the city but also the livelihood of the peasants. If we provide same level of minimum wage to the peasants as well as the workers, the rural population will be encouraged to stay in the villages and build up the community. Thus the income disparity between the people in the cities and the people in the villages will also be narrowed.
   • 6. For details of minimum wage policy in the Southeast Asian countries, please refer to Samydorai’s paper on Social Security for Migrant Workers in ASEAN.
2. B. Social Assistance:
   • 1. Social assistance is the last resort to those living in poverty, or what we call the safety net.
   • 2. What minimum level of social assistance should Asian governments provide to the poor?
   • 3. If we adopt the international poverty line of US$1.25 per day as our social assistance benefits, it may be quite difficult for countries which have over 20% population in poverty.
   • 4. But if we set up minimum wage and provide public work to those employable eligible for social assistance, the pressure on government budget will be much reduced.
   • 5. In order to provide good working incentive for minimum wage employments, we recommend the minimum individual social assistance benefit be set at 15% of the country average wage. The reason is that on average, an employed person needs to support at least two family members. In other words, the most a two person family can get from the social assistance is 30% of the average wage. Hence, there is working incentive for poor employee to take up a job with 40% level minimum wage, and will not cause welfare dependency.
   • 6. For some countries, a poor employee may need to support 3 family members. Hence the minimum wage level should be set up 50% or more.
   • 7. The individual benefit of social assistance in the European Union is over 30%, and the family level of benefit is around 50%. Hence the recommended level of individual social assistance benefit is only half of that in the European Union.
   • 8. In 2007, the cost of social assistance in 87 developing countries is around 1% to 2%. The median figure is 1.4%.
   • 9. When 20 some developing countries set up their social assistance system, their GDP per capita is around US$447 to US$9300; the average is US$3518.

In your submission of abstract and full paper, you are requested to look into the actual data and situations in your own country together with the ongoing demands of the NGOs, and see whether the above proposed minima is useful to be adopted as the guideline of the minima in practice. You are also encouraged to analyze the minima proposal from the regional level and see whether they are fit for the Asian social security minima in practice. It is also important for you to recommend action plans and guidelines to implement these minima in your country and in Asia as a whole.

Centre for Social Policy Studies,
Department of Applied Social Sciences, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hunghom, Kowloon, Hong Kong
(Miss Emily Lui)
Telephone:(852) 3400 3491
Fax: (852) 2334 8464
Email: ssemily@inet.polyu.edu.hk

Asia Monitor Resource Centre,
Flat 7, 9/F, Block A, Fuk Keung Industrial Building, 66-68 Tong Mi Road, Kowloon, HK
(Miss. Sally Choi)
Telephone:(852) 2332 1346
Fax: (852) 2385 5319
Email: sally@amrc.org.hk  or choi.wingsze@gmail.com

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The 3 rd Asian Regional Round Table on Social Security was organised in Chiang Mai on 24-25 Aug 2011, jointly by Asia Monitor Resource Center (AMRC), the Faculty of Economics, Chiang Mai University; Hong Kong; Center for Social Policy Studies, Department of Applied Social Sciences; The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong; and Hong Kong Social Security Society (HKSSS).

The Roundtable aims to arouse interests in the issue of social security in Asia, to facilitate exchange and debates between all stakeholders including academics, NGOs and trade unions, and to chart out a concrete roadmap towards social security for all in Asia. About 40 representatives of NGOs/Trade Unions and scholars from Bangladesh, China, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, India, Korea, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri lanka, Vietnam and 60 local participants from Chiang Mai participated in the meeting.

  The visions and emerging of AROSS over the past three year

Asia has been badly hit by the global financial crisis since October 2008. The impacts on Asian workers are of particular concern as more than two thirds of Asian workers are informal, implying that they do not enjoy a well-functioning comprehensive social security rights. AMRC and our comrades in labour movment believed that it was high time for Asian countries to develop national and regional policies on social security, whereby all Asians can enjoy basic living protection; All Asians should enjoy the fruit of social and economic progress, and to maintain decent living and secured working conditions. The first AROSS meeting in 2009 set principles for Comprehensive Social Security and demanded:

1) the governments should recognize the social security rights for all through national legislation, and to provide effective implementation machinery for system operation;
2) governments of all Asian countries and regions should commit a considerable % of their GDP (we recommended 6% ) to social security for all by 2015. In the 2nd AROSS meeting in 2010, we started discussing how we could:

(1) to ensure the social security rights of workers in the region;
(2) for workers, including mobile workers, to have a fair share on economic progress;
(3) for the sake of Asian solidarity and to better match human resources and the regional economy; The core working group of AROSS proposed a unified Asian social security minima for providing a basic but unified living protection to all Asians. This proposal layout a comprehensive framwork and brench marks of social security system carrying the principles and demands of AROSS.

    The meeting and debates of AROSS 2011

As a continuation of our shared concerns and joint endeavour, the 3rd AROSS meeting in 2011 was to:
1) review progress – in particular in social assistance and minimum wage legislation/ implementation;
2) to review goals and to formulate action plans for the future. The theme of the 3 rd AROSS, ―Asian Minima in Practice, illustrated aptly the magnitude and the significance of the task ahead of us. As preferred by the past participants, the third AROSS is chosen for social assistance, minimum wage. The position papers for the Asian Minima in Practice on minimum wage and social assistance adopted the Economics, Social and Cultural Rights Convention (ICESCR) as the key legality of the standards. Speakers and contributors coming from a dozen regions and countries shared their vision on the details of the minima, illustrated by examples from their own regions.

     A. Minimum Wage

1. All employees should be entitled to a minimum wage policy, which replacement rate of 40% to 60% of the country average wage. This is an international practice.
2. The Euro Statistics indicated that 15 OECD countries on average have a minimum wage policy over 40%. Hence, the minimum level of minimum wage for Asian countries should not be less than 40%.
3. Asian governments should provide public work for the working age people who are eligible for social assistance and should provide public them with the minimum wage. The public work should include hospitals, schools, roads, electricity, irrigation and other social infrastructure facilities. This is related to the importance of workfare.
4. It is important that we should not pay attention only to the workers in the city but also the livelihood of the peasants.

     B. Social Assistance

5. If we set up minimum wage and provide public work to those employable eligible for social assistance, the pressure on government budget will be much reduced.
6. In order to provide good working incentive for minimum wage employments, we recommend the minimum individual social assistance benefit be set at 15% of the country average wage. The reason is that on average, an employed person needs to support at least two family members. In other words, the most a two person family can get from the social assistance is 30% of the average wage. Hence, there is working incentive for poor employee to take up a job with 40% level minimum wage, and will not cause welfare dependency.

AMRC also organised a legal skill share workshop on work injury compensation which was back to back with the meeting. The summary of the workshop was shared in the plenary session of the AROSS meeting. This roundtable also enabled Asian participants to learn more about the general social security system in Thailand as well as the provision to home based workers and migrant workers through the presentation at the meeting and exposure trips to NGOs.

Lively debates and heated discussions on the different aspects of the social security issue. Some debates on whether peasants should be covered by minimum wage and how we tackle minimum wage for migrant workers. It was also raised that evolution of wage society is very slow in some countries like Thailand. Majority of population is still in agriculture. How people work on farming link to minimum wage and collective bargaining. As for social assistance, the major issue is how to define poverty and how to define the ratio of social assistance. Lively participation of a large number of Thai scholars and students in the debates was also a proof that the issue of social security was one of the burning issues for the Thai people and they were most concerned about it. It was also argued with due emphasis that for the sake of Asian solidarity and a fair share in economic progress, there is an obligation and responsibility for the Asian governments to adopt a unified standard of social security minima.

As for action plan, the roundtable concluded that AROSS can help individual countries in comparative understanding, sharing, alliance building, also the network can make use of human resources expertise from Asia to advance the platform. Some concrete action plans were suggested:

(1) formation of three working groups with in AROSS: ASEAN social security campaign, SAARC social security campaign, China social security campaign;
(2) undertaking research studies to conceptualize and programatise social security issues in above regions & integrating them as Asian Social security movement;
(3) developing and expanding alliances with various organizations working on social security issues in above three regional groupings;
(4) a quarterly new letter on Social Security movement in Asia, with an objective to provide information and analysis on various issue of social security and furthering solidarity. The roundtable was also concerned about the revision of ILO Social Security (Minimum Standard) Convention No. 102 in the coming year and the discussion about demanding the Asian government to ratify ILO Social Security (Minimum Standard) Convention No. 102 by all Asian countries, or demand a Asian social security minima that may be below the ILO minimum standards were still going on this year. The debate was open ended.

The next Asian Regional Round Table on Social Security will be held in Phippines in 2013. Dr. Rene Ofreno prposed to host the next round table.