As Malaysia assumes its ASEAN Chairmanship, the Building and Wood Workers’ International (BWI) co-organised the official ASEAN Peoples @ ASEAN 2025 forum titled “Tackling Transboundary Haze, Heat Stress, and Forest Governance in Southeast Asia” together with Greenpeace Malaysia.

The event convened over 50 participants from trade unions, civil society, environmental groups, and frontline communities to address the region’s deepening environmental and labour crises.

BWI’s message was clear: heat stress is a deadly occupational hazard, and ASEAN must act.

Extreme heat is no longer seasonal, but it is a permanent risk for millions of outdoor workers in construction and forestry. Yet, without enforceable protections, workers are forced to choose between health and livelihood.

In the forum, BWI urged ASEAN to formally recognise heat stress as a serious occupational safety and health hazard, so that workers have the right to stop work, access protection, and receive compensation during stoppages.

BWI also urged ASEAN to lead the Global South by placing heat stress on the global agenda at COP30, demanding adaptation funding, enforceable international standards, and justice for workers on the frontlines. Inaction would render ASEAN complicit in the next avoidable tragedy.

The forum also exposed the shortcomings of forest certification schemes like FSC and PEFC in protecting labour rights. Rugayah Binti Hamdan, of the Union for Forestry Employees Sarawak (UFES), warned that without genuine oversight, certification risks becoming corporate greenwashing.

“Union rights may exist on paper, but union busting is rampant,” Rugayah said. “Credible audits must involve trade unions, be unannounced, and include random worker interviews. Certification must mean accountability, not a cover-up.”

BWI and UFES reaffirmed that any ASEAN Environmental Rights (AER) Framework must:

• Embed workers’ voices in climate governance;
• Guarantee protection from heat stress as an OSH standard;
• Enforce corporate accountability and labour compliance in environmental regulation.

BWI also calls on Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and ASEAN leaders to ensure the AER Framework becomes legally binding, placing workers, Indigenous peoples, and vulnerable communities at the heart of the region’s climate response.