Confusion reigns as migrant worker deadline nears

[webfact]

Confusion reigns as migrant worker deadline nears

By PRATCH RUJIVANAROM 
THE NATION 

 

 

EMPLOYMENT DEPARTMENT REFUSES TO EXTEND REGISTRATION PERIOD
 

MIGRANT WORKERS, employers and NGOs have highlighted problems with the ongoing nationwide registration process and urged the Labour Ministry to extend the registration period.

 

As the current registration period ends next Saturday, as many as 900,000 migrant workers still have not registered for work permits and visas, prompting the Migrant Working Group to release an open letter last Friday urging the Labour Ministry to extend the period to avoid excluding many workers.

 

Migrant Working Group coordinator Adisorn Kerdmongkhol said yesterday that congestion at worker registration centres in the last week was not because workers and employers had been too careless to register early, but resulted from problems at the One-Stop Service (OSS) centres and confusion over the registration system.

 

“We have noticed problems since the early weeks of the registration period that there were problems with cooperation among the relevant agencies working in OSS centres, making migrant workers and employers confused about the registration, so they waited until everything became clearer,” Adisorn said.

 

“This problem is because the Labour Ministry allowed too short a period of time for the registration of nearly 2 million migrant workers, combined with a failure in providing clear information about the registration system. In the end, the ministry has to sort out the solutions for the problems at hand, but cannot solve the problems in the big picture.”

 

An employer of migrant workers in Bangkok, Phisit Jengsrivong, said even though he had only three migrant workers from Myanmar working for him, he had been working on their registration since early March.

 

Phisit said the OSS centre earlier had not really provided a one-stop service, as his workers had to go to the hospital for a health check-up, which wasted a lot of time there before they could go to an OSS centre to follow up with the registration procedures.

 

Problem provinces

 

Adisorn added that from an assessment of problems in registration, not all provinces had congestion problems and areas with the most severe issues were in provinces that had large populations of migrant workers, such as Bangkok, Samut Prakan, Samut Sakhon and Chiang Mai.

 

He also said short-term measures recently announced by the Labour Ministry would not entirely solve the problem, as by his estimation there would still be many migrant workers who could not register in time. 

 

He also warned that new registration procedures would still leave the problem for the future, because the police might arrest workers who still had not completed their registrations by the deadline, even though they had already reported to the Labour Ministry to finish their registrations later.

 

He asked the Labour Ministry to extend the registration period in the provinces that had problems to make sure that there would not be migrant workers who wanted to work legally in Thailand forced to work illegally.

 

 

However, Employment Department director-general Anurak Tossarat said the Labour Ministry would not extend the registration period, because that would merely prolong the problems because employers and migrant workers would procrastinate their registrations.

 

The Labour Ministry started it registration of migrant workers on February 5 and expected it to be completed by March 31. The registration is meant to enable migrant workers who have not come to Thailand under memoranda of understanding to legally register for two-year work permits.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30341717

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-03-26

[kannot]

And the STUPIDEST part of this is that these  staff come and go, literally can stay 2-3  weeks then decide to leave the  job  and the  next lot have to go back and register again as  your job has to be specific to that person they can only work at your  job and only do what written down as "work", anything else is a breach of their stupid  rules.

Why on earth do they need a "health check"

The hilarious part is  foreign workers arent supposed to take jobs from the Thais but the Thais are too LAZY to do  not only farm work now but other jobs as  well, Thais want the money for sitting on their "getting fatter" backsides.

Tesco On Nut in Bangkok has many Burmese  selling  food on their own stalls, surely  restricted to Thais?

Edited March 25, 2018 by kannot

[YetAnother]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

However, Employment Department director-general Anurak Tossarat said the Labour Ministry would not extend the registration period, because that would merely prolong the problems because employers and migrant workers would procrastinate their registrations

various people highlight the problems, pointedly, and this nitwit does not address them; effectively saying  'there aren't any problems'

[yellowboat]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

“This problem is because the Labour Ministry allowed too short a period of time for the registration of nearly 2 million migrant workers, combined with a failure in providing clear information about the registration system. In the end, the ministry has to sort out the solutions for the problems at hand, but cannot solve the problems in the big picture.”

A perfect glimpse into a junta legacy. 

[mikebell]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

there were problems with cooperation among the relevant agencies

A bit like Immigration offices all over the country where the rules vary from office to office and day to day.  

[hansnl]

4 hours ago, kannot said:

And the STUPIDEST part of this is that these  staff come and go, literally can stay 2-3  weeks then decide to leave the  job  and the  next lot have to go back and register again as  your job has to be specific to that person they can only work at your  job and only do what written down as "work", anything else is a breach of their stupid  rules.

Why on earth do they need a "health check"

The hilarious part is  foreign workers arent supposed to take jobs from the Thais but the Thais are too LAZY to do  not only farm work now but other jobs as  well, Thais want the money for sitting on their "getting fatter" backsides.

Tesco On Nut in Bangkok has many Burmese  selling  food on their own stalls, surely  restricted to Thais?

The Thais, Sir, don't want to do those jobs, Sir, simply because the pay is laughable, Sir.

The employers only take migrant workers, Sir, because they are paid llegal wages, don't pay social security, pay per day, and are generally treated like slaves, Sir.

Example?

220 baht a day, minus 40 baht for drinking water and "food", for a 12 hour shift.

 

[overherebc]

In 1907 on one day in April Ellis Island processed 11,704 immigrants.

[Eric Loh]

2 hours ago, yellowboat said:

A perfect glimpse into a junta legacy. 

It was actually Prayut and a rush of blood to his head; use 44 to set up a new committee and demoted the director of the employment department to an inactive post which cuased the resignation of the then labour minister. What followed was and is still chaos. His legacy of poor and incompetent management.

[farcanell]

What a long article, when this would have been enough....

 

7 hours ago, webfact said:

Confusion reigns

 

[kannot]

1 hour ago, hansnl said:

The Thais, Sir, don't want to do those jobs, Sir, simply because the pay is laughable, Sir.

The employers only take migrant workers, Sir, because they are paid llegal wages, don't pay social security, pay per day, and are generally treated like slaves, Sir.

Example?

220 baht a day, minus 40 baht for drinking water and "food", for a 12 hour shift.

 

Try this Sir ,1  man 16000 baht a month ,free  motorbike,  free  gas, free  rice,  free  house,  free  electric ,free  water ,free  fish, then tell me Im not paying enough, for an 8 hour  day Sir and 1  day a  week off + 2 hours for lunch works  out at 666 baht a day

Edited March 26, 2018 by kannot

[Srikcir]

8 hours ago, webfact said:

the police might arrest workers who still had not completed their registrations by the deadline, even though they had already reported to the Labour Ministry to finish their registrations later.

That's just insane.

Not only are the arrests unnecessary, waste of police resources but waste of Labor Ministry resources processing registrations that become unfilled and invalid. The whole registration program is damaging the Thai economy with its inefficiency to get needed workers timely to key industries.

[overherebc]

1 hour ago, kannot said:

Try this Sir ,1  man 16000 baht a month ,free  motorbike,  free  gas, free  rice,  free  house,  free  electric ,free  water ,free  fish, then tell me Im not paying enough, for an 8 hour  day Sir and 1  day a  week off + 2 hours for lunch works  out at 666 baht a day

No cake????

[baboon]

3 hours ago, hansnl said:

The Thais, Sir, don't want to do those jobs, Sir, simply because the pay is laughable, Sir.

The employers only take migrant workers, Sir, because they are paid llegal wages, don't pay social security, pay per day, and are generally treated like slaves, Sir.

Example?

220 baht a day, minus 40 baht for drinking water and "food", for a 12 hour shift.

 

I agree. There are no jobs the locals (in any country) won't do, just wages they won't work for.

[thaiguzzi]

Brewery.

Piss up.

Organize.

Could not.

[PremiumLane]

6 hours ago, kannot said:

Try this Sir ,1  man 16000 baht a month ,free  motorbike,  free  gas, free  rice,  free  house,  free  electric ,free  water ,free  fish, then tell me Im not paying enough, for an 8 hour  day Sir and 1  day a  week off + 2 hours for lunch works  out at 666 baht a day

That is not a typical job that a migrant would do, so it is irrelevant. And why is it when 'Thais' or working class people want decent money and benefits then it is an outrage?

 

It is the rich who sit on their <deleted> not doing much and raking in all the money

[kannot]

10 hours ago, PremiumLane said:

That is not a typical job that a migrant would do, so it is irrelevant. And why is it when 'Thais' or working class people want decent money and benefits then it is an outrage?

 

It is the rich who sit on their <deleted> not doing much and raking in all the money

This IS a  very typical job that migrants would do, working on the land, do you have any experience with migrant workers?

Just two years ago if we needed  staff we'd contact an agent and some would  come the next day, now even the Burmese dont want to work on the land, they want factory jobs  only. Who do you think cuts  all the rubber  trees  in Thailand? Its NOT the Thais, who do you think harvest and deals  with the fruit trees, Its  not the  Thais.

Anytime when we asked for staff it  was always Burmese who would come, now there is a severe shortage, we started off paying 2  people  when really the job only needed one person and we gave them everything to make the job easier, they have all power  tools  for everything, they even got  free internet as  well something I forgot to mention.

Id  disagree they are paid below minimum wage in general, you know why?? because they know the law here very well and they know there is a shortage of staff and they know they can walk out of a job today and be in another tomorrow.

[kannot]

19 hours ago, hansnl said:

The Thais, Sir, don't want to do those jobs, Sir, simply because the pay is laughable, Sir.

The employers only take migrant workers, Sir, because they are paid llegal wages, don't pay social security, pay per day, and are generally treated like slaves, Sir.

Example?

220 baht a day, minus 40 baht for drinking water and "food", for a 12 hour shift.

 

Maybe a few  years ago but NOW you are way way out of  touch with the latest situation.