Estrada

This is a padded cell, no windows in here.... I kept asking people when they last cleaned their windows....

You must read your employers published work rules:

 

Employers with ten or more employees must submit their written work rules to the

District Labor Office and must post a copy thereof in a prominent location at the

place of work. Work rules must cover such matters as working days, regular hours

and rest periods; holidays and rules for taking holiday, rules on overtime and holiday

work; date and place of wage payment, overtime pay and holiday pay, leave and

rules for taking leave; disciplinary measures and punishment; procedures for

submission of grievances; and procedures for termination of employment including

severance pay and special severance pay.

 

Documents relating to the payment of wages, overtime pay, holiday pay and holiday

overtime pay must contain at least the particulars of the working day and working

hours; work done by employees who receive wages on a piece-rate basis; and rate

and amount of wages, overtime pay, holiday pay and holiday overtime pay. The

particulars may be contained in one or more separate documents, each of which

must be signed by the employee as evidence of payment.

If your employers company has more than nine employees and you have not been given

written work rules, which should include details of date of wage or salary payments, then

they are in breach of the Employment Act. The Government does not set a date for payment

such as weekly, fortnightly of monthly, that is up to your contract which you should have 

already signed. I have experienced payment being end of the week, fortnight or month worked

with overtime paid at the same time or the end of the following work period. Some companies 

pay wages or salaries at the end of the following work period. If you cannot reach an 

understanding with you employer, contact your local labour office.

 

Putin will grant him political asylum

About time too... 18 years ago, a number of our expat engineers in Bangkok were trained as arbiters in the lead up to 2002, ready for the passing Arbitration Act to allow foreigners fluent in English to act in arbitration cases only to have us blocked. It has taken so long that most of us have retired already.

 

Prior to the referendum being announced, a renegotiation took place in Feb 2015 and the GBP climbed to B55/1GBP after the referendum the GBP fell to B42.5/1GBP (>-30%). Brexiteers told me not to worry as it would recover within 3 weeks! 2 years later it am still losing 22% to 30% of my pension compared with 2015. If there is a hard Brexit I will be losing another 25% due to the predicted fall in the value of the GBP by the B.O.E. and another 10% if there is a soft Brexit.

Really, doubt if she will be here in another 50 years.

"I am being told by someone that he has used >800k in shares shown with a brokerage account statement. I am a little unconvinced he hasnt (possibly without knowing it) gone down the income certification route rather than the 800k deposited route"....

 

He made this up... I tried this once with a 9 Million Baht investment and the head immigration officer told me that it was unacceptable to use money in a brokerage account, SET etc. "Because you could lose everything over night". He insisted that it be in a Thai Bank, preferably a fixed deposit account so that it is easy for them to check the balance has not dipped during the specified 2 to 3 month period before applying for first or subsequent extensions. They follow the rules.

16 hours ago, alex8912 said:

I’ve never understood why Portugal, which has a lot of economic problems and high unemployment, has never legalized marijuana for sale and made not just millions and millions in tax dollars but also create thousands of jobs. 

Since June 2018, it is legal to sell medicinal Marijuana... 

Contact the office of consumer protection at the same building as Thai Immigration at Chaengwattana Government Centre.

16 minutes ago, JoePai said:

Now you can use paper bags for your rubbish, even better

Paper bags are no good for wet food waste (Garbage). I use my plastic shopping bags to keep the wet waste for composting separate so that it can easily be sorted at the waste transfer station at Onuch Rd Bangkok. I will have to buy plastic bin liners now. 

I helped write the Bangkok Solid Waste Master Plan in 1999, a 20 year program. The problem is that the scavengers are a not going out of their way to collect all the discarded recyclables if they are more difficult to reach. The majority of the general public refuse to separate Garbage (wet waste) from Rubbish (dry waste). The BMA now only supply Green and Yellow bins and no longer supply hazardous waste bins because they recognize that the public refuse to separate the waste. Also the BMA are not charging enough for waste collection and they are not enforcing the B2,000 fine for littering. Without sufficient income the BMA cannot keep the streets and waste lands clean of the enormous amounts of discarded plastic drinks containers complete with that highly polluting black jelly from those popular Japanese type drinks. So for 20 years we have been following these programs and this latest study is based on our recommendations from 20 years ago. The problem is that there is still no fines or enforcement that helps make sure that the public stop littering and separate their waste for collection.

 

19 hours ago, RicUSA said:

I've only lived here 4 months and that would not surprise me - thailand ways of doing things are very layed back.  Big C is sort of a discount store like walmart to me.  But as you say - the cooking will kill any surface bacteria - should get a meat thermometer to make sure center of steak is 140 - 160 F or 60 - 70 degrees C.  

Cooking destroys bacteria but not the toxins already produced by the bacteria. Some bacteria produce heat resistant spores also. One reason I don't buy meat from the open self service, free for all, meat displays even though these days most customers use tongs. These toxins or spores can give you the runs or make you very sick depending on the particular bacterium. It's a lucky dip whether you get ill or not.

There is no problems with tax. The main problem is with the Anti Money Laundering regulations and reporting to AMLO. 

 

I had major problems when working in Libya and a substantial sum of money was sent from the UK to my Bangkok Bank Account. Bangkok Bank refused to accept to credit my account and told me that they would send the money back to the UK unless I visited the Head Office in Silom road within two days. This was impossible and I was only able to get around it due to my connections, so make sure you are in Thailand when the money is received. If you send the money in several transfers under B700,000 you should be under the radar. The main problem is caused by the reporting requirements of the US Government and a reason Banks here may decline to open new accounts for US citizens. Even if you are not a US citizen, "America World Police" want to know what money you are moving around, although there is less paper work than for US Citizens. Details of AMLO requirements are here:

 

https://www.bangkokbank.com/en/Personal/Other-Services/-/media/ECF23B7214AA4479AB61F13ED4E0E8C4.ashx

Your UK Pension can be paid easily from Bangkok Bank London office if you open a Bangkok Bank Account here, or to other banks according to the latest info:  https://www.gov.uk/state-pension-if-you-retire-abroad

 

I've been getting mine via Bangkok Bank London for the last 5 years. I have 3 other UK private pensions which they pay via swift direct to my Bangkok Bank account and one annual pension which they insist on sending a cheque and will not accept to pay any other way. Forget IBAN, Thailand does not use this, they use Swift.

Bound to end in a "cover up" by the Thai police.

 

Suggest you install two aircons. I also have a long room 9m x 4m. Originally the supplier installed one large 18,000Btu/hr Air Con at one end of the room and it was difficult to keep the far end of the room cool, whilst the end with the air con was too cold. My monthly bill, which included 3 other air cons in the bedrooms was B8,000+. I replace this aircon with two 13,000Btu/hr aircons at opposite ends of the room lounge end and the other working office end. This mean that I only need to run one air con during the day at the office end and the other when watching TV. The result has been a B3,000 reduction in my monthly bill down to B4-5,000/month for the whole house.

3 hours ago, schlog said:

Why didn't the post office stamps the parcels?

80% of stamps in the United States are not franked. The problem is the Post Office are short of staff, labour costs are higher than the loss that would be incurred if someone steamed the stamps off for reuse.

 

They are supposedly worth B1 or B3 each and you stick them in their stamp booklet and can get some rather unattractive gifts, ranging from B119 to B709. I give mine away to the customers who look like they need it.

If the photo of the British flag shown in the poster was supplied by the British Embassy, it just goes to show how useless they are. The flag shown is a typical knock off of the British flag with the red cross printed in the wrong position.

Usually there is an operator that lives above the pump station (well) who keeps the pumps clear of trash and operates the pumps in coordination with the downstream pump stations. Sometimes the BMA decides to flood districts considered lower priority to keep the more important areas clear of flood waters. However, the fact that this pump station was under construction and the key was with the Contractor, leads me to believe that the pump station was unfinished and/or the Contractor was waiting for payment from the BMA before handing over to the BMA. The BMA is underfunded especially when it comes to waste handling and collection. The public need to pay 5 to 10 times what they are paying now to adequately fund the BMA.

28 minutes ago, grumbleweed said:

What's all the fuss about? It's only water 

Wait until they start with nuclear energy, gonna give mushroom seeding a whole new meaning

They have been running a nuclear power plant on Vibhavadi Rangsit Road, near Chatujak, Bangkok since 1962 without incident.

I have used my Thai Drivers licence every time for the last 8 years, no problem. I use Europcar.