The sad state of Thai labour in the countryside

[Yellowtail]

Just now, bodga said:

yeah that 800  baht is  really  going to sort  them, they have no  pride in themselves and ability to support themselves.

 

No shortage of people in the west on the public teat....

 

When the government takes care of people they no longer have to worry about taking care of themselves. What's to point of saving money and buying insurance if the government is going to bail you out? 

[Yellowtail]

2 minutes ago, bodga said:

Im paying 500  a  day, and the work does  not involve standing in the sun EVERY  day, apart from  maybe monthly tending to the crop for 3  days most of the time its watering trees which involves opening a  tap and standing there for 4  minutes whilst the sprinklers do their job, under the trees   there's  no sun.

 

If it's just opening a valve (walve?) and standing there, just buy solenoid valve and a timer. The three days a month when you really need them pay much more.

 

How many people do you use?

[473geo]

What was that classic oft repeated Tvisa cliche....oh yes.... live as far away from family as you can ????

 

We have no problem with labour, but then we have no problem with our supportive Thai family, and no problem paying a decent rate, feeding them well, with a beer to close the day.....I guess reap what you sow is rather applicable in rural Thailand

[bodga]

8 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

 

If it's just opening a valve (walve?) and standing there, just buy solenoid valve and a timer. The three days a month when you really need them pay much more.

 

How many people do you use?

its 300 trees one or two people the job is also cutting the leaves  off the trees as  they are all  palms but  they dont need  cutting  daily and many are self cleaning ie they fall to the ground, no easy way to fit solenoids and still need to spray weedkiller  occasionally underneath them even though theres 6  inches of gravel to suppress  weeds.

[bodga]

4 minutes ago, 473geo said:

What was that classic oft repeated Tvisa cliche....oh yes.... live as far away from family as you can ????

 

We have no problem with labour, but then we have no problem with our supportive Thai family, and no problem paying a decent rate, feeding them well, with a beer to close the day.....I guess reap what you sow is rather applicable in rural Thailand

define decent rate? My Wife has no family. Mother dead Father dead a  long long time ago.

[Yellowtail]

5 minutes ago, bodga said:

its 300 trees one or two people the job is also cutting the leaves  off the trees as  they are all  palms but  they dont need  cutting  daily and many are self cleaning ie they fall to the ground, no easy way to fit solenoids and still need to spray weedkiller  occasionally underneath them even though theres 6  inches of gravel to suppress  weeds.

 

Yeah, Thais really don't seem to like  like being around chemicals. 

 

Are you paying monthly or a daily rate?  Five days a week or six?

[polpott]

2 hours ago, Scouse123 said:

No.

They all want to work in Global or Homepro so they can sit on their asses all day taking selfies and playing Facebook.

 

If they have no work, they are not embarrassed just to beg people and the famous " borrow but get angry if people ask for it back " routine.

 

Just <deleted>, many of whom don't even finish high school.

Earning more money and guaranteed work. I know a lady in Buriram who gets 200 baht/day when there's work. She's not lazy but can't raise a family on that. Many have gone to work in factories both locally and in Chonburi.

[CorpusChristie]

10 minutes ago, bodga said:

its 300 trees one or two people the job is also cutting the leaves  off the trees as  they are all  palms but  they dont need  cutting  daily and many are self cleaning ie they fall to the ground, no easy way to fit solenoids and still need to spray weedkiller  occasionally underneath them even though theres 6  inches of gravel to suppress  weeds.

 

  When will you be holding interviews for the next job vacancies , as I may apply myself ?

[bodga]

3 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

 

Yeah, Thais really don't seem to like  like being around chemicals. 

 

Are you paying monthly or a daily rate?  Five days a week or six?

per  month current guy started at 12k then we upped to 13 soon we  will up to 14 and finally  15 this is 3  months 6  months 12  months  rate

[bodga]

5 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

 

Yeah, Thais really don't seem to like  like being around chemicals. 

 

Are you paying monthly or a daily rate?  Five days a week or six?

The  chemicals are  occasional and minimal and the reason is they dont want to  pull them out by hand, they used to, we had to switch to spraying despite  years of  having no chemicals

[Yellowtail]

1 minute ago, CorpusChristie said:

 

  When will you be holding interviews for the next job vacancies , as I may apply myself ?

 

It's not killing that kind of weed....

[Yellowtail]

3 minutes ago, bodga said:

per  month current guy started at 12k then we upped to 13 soon we  will up to 14 and finally  15 this is 3  months 6  months 12  months  rate

 

500 a day is 15K a month for full time work.

[473geo]

Just now, bodga said:

define decent rate? My Wife has no family. Mother dead Father dead a  long long time ago.

 

What was that other classic oft used classic Tvisa cliche  - marry an orphan  (I know not quite applicable in your case)

 

For a family it is more about looking after each other, we provide work when there is no alternative, often we will use 3 people where two would possibly be ok, just to share the opportunity, Steady project work, say fencing, building work, for three family we pay total 1000 a day, food and a beer.

If however we require urgent short time assistance, for instance childcare when my wife needs to work we pay 100/200 baht an hour, and food if necessary.

Different with family, life is not cut and dried 'contracts' more about sharing resource, an uncle does the crop spraying by hand, has done for years, not expensive it's his niche and thus all the family use him so he knows every year he has this revenue

 

 

 

 

[bodga]

11 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

 

500 a day is 15K a month for full time work.

do you count  Sunday then? he  gets 13k a  month now no work sunday this is going up to 14k in about 2  months then 15 k. He  used to  work in Bangkok but had a lot of outgoings with rent, he got 12k in bangkok and lost 4k in rent with aircon

Edited November 21, 2020 by bodga

[bodga]

1 minute ago, 473geo said:

for three family we pay total 1000 a day, food and a beer.

for  all 3  people or each

[bodga]

13 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

 

500 a day is 15K a month for full time work.

i take a 30 day  month, knock off 4  days for sundays and calculate it  on that 26 days work x 500=  13000.

[Yellowtail]

1 minute ago, bodga said:

do you count  Sunday then?

 

I don't, but the Labor Department does. Regardless of how many days a week they work, a full time employee is paid for 30 days.

 

Anything over eight hours in a single day is overtime regardless of total weekly hours.

[473geo]

2 minutes ago, bodga said:

for  all 3  people or each

For 3 people - they work hard, so with family we do not have a project price, we have a daily rate of 1000 for 3 people, just that little bit above the norm. We work together, if they have other work we hold back. Good for them to know there is work in the pipeline. They are already aware of our next project to extend the cow shed and increase the Hay barn area, and although now a man down, will be planning accordingly to accommodate along with any other work.

 

There is another important part in my opinion, I never handle payments or negotiations. My wife and I agree what needs to done, we price it up, then it's over to her to make it happen. ????

[CorpusChristie]

16 minutes ago, 473geo said:

 

What was that other classic oft used classic Tvisa cliche  - marry an orphan  (I know not quite applicable in your case)

 

For a family it is more about looking after each other, we provide work when there is no alternative, often we will use 3 people where two would possibly be ok, just to share the opportunity, Steady project work, say fencing, building work, for three family we pay total 1000 a day, food and a beer.

If however we require urgent short time assistance, for instance childcare when my wife needs to work we pay 100/200 baht an hour, and food if necessary.

Different with family, life is not cut and dried 'contracts' more about sharing resource, an uncle does the crop spraying by hand, has done for years, not expensive it's his niche and thus all the family use him so he knows every year he has this revenue

 

 

 

 

 

  Do you have an external income or is all your income from the land/farm ?

[Yellowtail]

11 minutes ago, bodga said:

do you count  Sunday then? he  gets 13k a  month now no work sunday this is going up to 14k in about 2  months then 15 k. He  used to  work in Bangkok but had a lot of outgoings with rent, he got 12k in bangkok and lost 4k in rent with aircon

 

I made a lot more money managing a factory than I ever did traveling with a carnival. I still miss the carnival after 30 years, the factory? Not so much. 

 

Living in a Bangkok room is a lot more fun than living on a palm farm.

 

What about old men? Any luck with them? They're usually pretty reliable. 

[473geo]

2 minutes ago, CorpusChristie said:

 

  Do you have an external income or is all your income from the land/farm ?

 

We will always have external income thanks to that awful western world many on Tvisa appear so happy to have escaped ????, any farming profit is thrown back in to gradually improve, as my old boss used to say it will be 'found done' down the line

 

Another thing we used the village guys to build our modest inexpensive home, in my opinion if you pass them by on a big project where they could earn well for a long period, don't expect them to come and do the <deleted> work, after all would you?

[bodga]

30 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

I don't, but the Labor Department does

How odd is  that! but when they have a  day sick is that counted  too?

[bodga]

24 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

What about old men? Any luck with them? They're usually pretty reliable. 

had  one was an alcoholic, hid  the  bottles  in a neighbours  field, i found them one day, it didnt  bother me as long as he worked ok and he did until 2  months before he left when he went right  off, lasted 20  months almost a record for us.

[bodga]

27 minutes ago, 473geo said:

For 3 people - they work hard, so with family we do not have a project price, we have a daily rate of 1000 for 3 people, just that little bit above the norm. We work together, if they have other work we hold back. Good for them to know there is work in the pipeline. They are already aware of our next project to extend the cow shed and increase the Hay barn area, and although now a man down, will be planning accordingly to accommodate along with any other work.

 

There is another important part in my opinion, I never handle payments or negotiations. My wife and I agree what needs to done, we price it up, then it's over to her to make it happen. ????

I dont deal with the money.

[bodga]

33 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

 

I don't, but the Labor Department does. Regardless of how many days a week they work, a full time employee is paid for 30 days.

 

Anything over eight hours in a single day is overtime regardless of total weekly hours.

ok so 15k is  500 a  day based on 30 days, well that what they get here after 6  months. Wish id  gotten paid for days I didnt  work in the UK

[bodga]

1 minute ago, bodga said:

just that little bit above the norm

and I will pay 500 a  day and they still arent interested.

[spiekerjozef]

4 hours ago, bodga said:

So here is the warning for  those thinking of  getting some land and growing anything, forget it, no one wants to work on the land anymore.

If you don't even wanna do it yourself, who can blame them...

[Ireland32]

4 hours ago, bodga said:

So  have had my land now for 8  years, staff were easy to find way back then, generally  Burmese, Thais dont want to do  this work on the land.

Ive noticed in the last 4-5  years more and more fields are being abandoned become overgrown etc, and staff are  getting harder to find and are  more lazy.

It doesnt matter what you pay, it doesnt matter what you give them in extra benefits such as free  electric, water ,  motorbike,  house etc etc.

Wife has spoken to a few  more people round here with farms and they all say the same, no one wants to work  on the land, even though many have no  jobs  now they will  not work on the land.

It pains me to sell up but it is  what it is, Im looking forwards to  maybe getting a life back instead of the constant worry of staff leaving at the drop of a  hat or just sitting doing very  little.

So here is the warning for  those thinking of  getting some land and growing anything, forget it, no one wants to work on the land anymore.

Pitiful Profits maybe Ganja will change things around to profits 

[Bangyai]

A lot of farm workers prefer to go into building and construction . Don't ask me why but there it is.

 

They can be pretty slow at this also but there is a foreman around making sure they are not drunk or falling asleep.

 

On a positive note, we recently had a large part of our driveway broken up and redone. The guy we contracted to do the job sub contracted the hard part out to another guy who was to break up and shift the old concrete. It was supposed to be a job for 3 workers but come the day only 1 turned up , the one who had been offered the work. The guy is 64 years old but lean and muscular and set about doing it himself using a jackhammer and crowbars. 

 

What we thought would be only 10cm thick turned out to be 15 cm thick on the main part. That guy worked like a demon possessed from 9.00 am until 6.00 pm with only an hour for lunch , broke up the concrete, cut the old rebar and shifted the rubble out of the way reading for next days pouring.

 

He kept the whole 2000 baht for himself since his co workers were no shows and in my opinion he deserved every baht.

[Kwasaki]

2 hours ago, bodga said:

Id  employ women if  I could find any, cant understand why no one wants a  long term job with a decent  employer and can more or less please themselves whats done as long as it gets done.,no future  no hope for them it  seems no savings nothing in most cases............often arrive with just a few  clothes and a battered  old  bike.

I sympathize with you it is not hard for me, my wife does everything,  I help with things now and again because I'm retired.