Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Workers across South-East Asia have rallied on May Day to express their profound dissatisfaction with their respective governments as the latter try to reproduce China's economic miracle rather than satisfy the needs of the population.

"In the Philippines, workers too often are deprived of the fruit of their labour," said Mgr Angelo Lagdameo, chairman of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines. Labour and capital are, he explained, "interdependent and complementary and both contribute to social well-being and economic progress."

The prelate stressed that "labour should take precedence over capital," and "History has shown that when these two [social] forces come into conflict disaster ensues for the whole society."

Finally, he said, "Labour Day is a time to acknowledge that working people are a source of progress and development in society."

Around the region, many rallies instead turned ugly. In Jakarta an estimated 20,000 to 50,000 workers gathered in front of the parliament building shouting "Don't change the laws", throwing stones at police and burning tires. Police dispersed the crowd using water cannons and tear gas.

Indonesian trade unions are up in arms against proposed changes to the existing labour law that would cut into wages and limits workers' rights. The government claims that the claw-back is necessary to make the country more competitive economically and more foreign investment-friendly in order to compete with mainland China where salaries are lower and workers' rights fewer.

In Manila on May Day, anti-riot agents stopped demonstrators marching on the presidential palace mindful that similar protests led to the ouster of then Filipino President Joseph Estrada in May 2001.

In Cambodia, hundreds of workers gathered in defiance of a ban on marches, but were stopped by police. Police detained Chea Mony, head of a local labour organisation.

In Thailand workers took to the streets to demand a 25 per cent increase in the minimum wage.

In China May Day started a week-long worker holiday, but according to a report by the State Council, 76 per cent of rural migrant workers work on holidays and are not paid overtime.

On average rural migrants work up to 11 hours a day, more than 26 days a month. Only 13.7 per cent worked for no more than eight hours a day, 40.30 per cent worked eight to nine hours, 23.48 per cent put in nine to 10 hours a day and 22.50 per cent worked more than 10 hours, this despite the fact that art. 36 of China's Labour Code stipulates that work time should not exceed 8 hours a day, 44 hours a week. Should overtime be required, employers and trade unions must agree to its terms and it must be performed on a volunteer basis.

About 700 million Chinese workers were paid less than US$ 2 a day, this according to a report released by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU).

"China's competitiveness is based on the exploitative wages paid to its workers," the report said. "People have 60/70-hour working weeks, live in dormitories with eight to 16 people in each room, earn less than the minimum wages, which go as low as $44 [a month], and often their only prospect if they should get injured at work is unemployment."

In its report, ICFTU criticised the World Trade Organisation for overlooking the fundamentals on which China's economic miracle is based. It demands the world trading club link the creation of decent working conditions to its agenda for trade liberalisation to ensure social fairness.

"China's experience shows that trade liberalisation alone and success in export markets [do not] ensure social progress and development," it lamented; instead, they have created "one of the most unequal countries in the world". (PB)