None of the Asian countries most affected has a particularly good record on labour rights. But now, in an effort to lure foreign investors, governments may promise to introduce anti-union measures and restrictions on freedom of association. With a workforce already anxious about job losses, such measures are hardly like to reduce the prospect of labour unrest. It is time to experiment with reforms that increase, not decrease, the ability of workers to bargain collectively on wages and benefits. In a time of crisis, top-down decisions without worker involvement are guaranteed to breed resentment.
Migrant workers are particularly vulnerable.
Now countries that have traditionally received migrant workers with open arms want the jobs for their own citizens. Malaysia initially an-nounced it would be sending back 1m foreign workers, mostly Indonesians, with some Bangladeshis and Filipinos. Anwar Ibrahim, deputy prime minister, has since retracted that figure, but the likelihood of mass deportations remains. Thailand has announced a new crackdown on an estimated 800,000 illegal migrants, most of them Burmese. When past economic downturns have led to expulsions of foreign workers, the result has been physical violence against migrants, who become the scapegoat for social and economic ills.