Foreigners arrested for working without permission

[ChipButty]

7 minutes ago, jvs said:

Here i was expecting to see a bunch of Russians on Phuket in cuffs.

Is that going to happen?

I bet my next paycheck it will not.

why would you want to see that?

[bamboozled]

9 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

Because Thai’s don’t want that sort of work….  

 

Factories, building sites, construction, restaurants etc….  There is a huge availability of jobs for migrant labourers because Thai’s won’t do those jobs (in so many cases)….  Authorities know this so have to turn a blind eye while playing the game and also getting some payouts too.

 

Our previous maid  (Burmese) was ‘caught’ on her day off outside of the district she is registered. We had to go & get her from the Police station, it cost me 2000 baht for her to be released. When I collected her there were about 30 burmese all sat on the floor in a room.  
 

Quite the earner. If there are no foreign labourers, there are fewer opportunities to extort them & or their employers.
 

 

Not picking a fight or anything, just musing.... I wonder if this is true, as stated. It's oft repeated, yes. But maybe the cart is before the horse...or something like that. The reason Thai's supposedly don't want to do that sort of work is because it pays so damn little. And the reason it pays so little is because there is foreign labor available, made up of hungrier, worse-off folks who are willing to do it because they don't have better opportunities. If the foreign workers were excluded/prohibited, either the work wouldn't get done or the remuneration would go up. Perhaps to a living wage. This is the same story everywhere in the world. It's all about the money.

 

A friend of mine studied to be a nurse at the most basic level. Not a super skilled position but not laying bricks, either. The hospital in Bkk where she did her internship, that was very happy with her, offered her a job. The pay was 12k per month. Working 6 days a week, 10-12 hour days. This is in Bangkok, mind you. What kind of life does that get you? The pay here in Chiang Mai at a nursing home was only 7k/month.

 

What burns me up is there are labor laws, minimum wage laws, amount of break-time laws, but so many businesses don't seem to follow them. And the workers don't seem to complain. Nor do the authorities seem to do anything.

 

Did you folks know that when a waiter/waitress breaks a glass at MK restaurant (and inevitably, glasses will get broken in a restaurant), they have to pay for the glass out of their 38 baht/hour salary? Shameful.

[ChipButty]

9 minutes ago, bamboozled said:

Not picking a fight or anything, just musing.... I wonder if this is true, as stated. It's oft repeated, yes. But maybe the cart is before the horse...or something like that. The reason Thai's supposedly don't want to do that sort of work is because it pays so damn little. And the reason it pays so little is because there is foreign labor available, made up of hungrier, worse-off folks who are willing to do it because they don't have better opportunities. If the foreign workers were excluded/prohibited, either the work wouldn't get done or the remuneration would go up. Perhaps to a living wage. This is the same story everywhere in the world. It's all about the money.

 

A friend of mine studied to be a nurse at the most basic level. Not a super skilled position but not laying bricks, either. The hospital in Bkk where she did her internship, that was very happy with her, offered her a job. The pay was 12k per month. Working 6 days a week, 10-12 hour days. This is in Bangkok, mind you. What kind of life does that get you? The pay here in Chiang Mai at a nursing home was only 7k/month.

 

What burns me up is there are labor laws, minimum wage laws, amount of break-time laws, but so many businesses don't seem to follow them. And the workers don't seem to complain. Nor do the authorities seem to do anything.

 

Did you folks know that when a waiter/waitress breaks a glass at MK restaurant (and inevitably, glasses will get broken in a restaurant), they have to pay for the glass out of their 38 baht/hour salary? Shameful.

the attitude is not much better in 7/11 so I'm told, We lose, you lose

[richard_smith237]

15 minutes ago, bamboozled said:

Not picking a fight or anything, just musing.... I wonder if this is true, as stated. It's oft repeated, yes. But maybe the cart is before the horse...or something like that. The reason Thai's supposedly don't want to do that sort of work is because it pays so damn little. And the reason it pays so little is because there is foreign labor available, made up of hungrier, worse-off folks who are willing to do it because they don't have better opportunities. If the foreign workers were excluded/prohibited, either the work wouldn't get done or the remuneration would go up. Perhaps to a living wage. This is the same story everywhere in the world. It's all about the money.

The InLaws used to own a factory - they had a number of illegal Burmese labourers because Thai's didn't want the job. The pay was very likely extremely poor (minimum wage). 

The  issue was that Thai's didn't want to do a minimum wage job for a minimum wage.

 

Every year, they'd spend Money to try and legalise their labourers but the process was intensive and time consuming (completely impractical), relatively expensive and as soon as some of the staff got their work credentials some of the labourers disappeared !!!... 

 

It got to the point when even trying to do things right, the reality was that it's not made easy. 

 

 

15 minutes ago, bamboozled said:

A friend of mine studied to be a nurse at the most basic level. Not a super skilled position but not laying bricks, either. The hospital in Bkk where she did her internship, that was very happy with her, offered her a job. The pay was 12k per month. Working 6 days a week, 10-12 hour days. This is in Bangkok, mind you. What kind of life does that get you? The pay here in Chiang Mai at a nursing home was only 7k/month.

There are standards of nurses... the lowest probably don't get paid much at all. 

I've just had an Op...   

- On the 'sterile side' (surgery side) of the hospital the nurses were outstanding. 

- On the 'recovery side' (residential) side of the hospital, the nursers are remarkably average ranging to outright stupid.

 

 

15 minutes ago, bamboozled said:

What burns me up is there are labor laws, minimum wage laws, amount of break-time laws, but so many businesses don't seem to follow them. And the workers don't seem to complain. Nor do the authorities seem to do anything.

Agreed...  

 

15 minutes ago, bamboozled said:

Did you folks know that when a waiter/waitress breaks a glass at MK restaurant (and inevitably, glasses will get broken in a restaurant), they have to pay for the glass out of their 38 baht/hour salary? Shameful.

Extremely shameful....    I've heard that before and believe it to be true of some establishments, but the rumour is a popular one to convey amongst expats highlighting how they've scratched the surface of this land.

Edited September 8, 2023 by richard_smith237

[scorecard]

11 hours ago, ukrules said:

Laughable, they're going after the lowest possible hanging fruit.

Just wondering whether the 2 foreigner workers (from  nearby countries) were well informed about the need to have work permits / need to renew them, etc.

 

Some years back a Thai lady from my family met an Australian guy in Pattaya. She brought the Aussie guy to our house to meet the family.

 

The Aussie guy was working as a journalist for a now defunked Pattaya newspaper.

 

The Aussie guy (still very new to LOS) was keen to ask me about what documents he might need.

 

I asked if he had a work permit?

 

His response: "My boss (indian Thai man) had told him that the newspaper held a multi person work permit and the owner was free to record up to 10 foreign employees on the multi person WP document."

 

I also asked the Aussie gut what Visa he had? Response "Entry on arrival" and he continued "Boss says journalists don't need more than tourist documents to work in Thailand".

 

 

 

[kingstonkid]

21 hours ago, BritScot said:

You also don't see other countries parading people with visa breaches on TV!!!

Could you imagine the screeching of the bleeding hearts if they did?  It would be deafening.

 

Here, people realize if you break the law that, you will do a perp walk with at least your face blurred out.

[kingstonkid]

19 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

The InLaws used to own a factory - they had a number of illegal Burmese labourers because Thai's didn't want the job. The pay was very likely extremely poor (minimum wage). 

The  issue was that Thai's didn't want to do a minimum wage job for a minimum wage.

 

Every year, they'd spend Money to try and legalise their labourers but the process was intensive and time consuming (completely impractical), relatively expensive and as soon as some of the staff got their work credentials some of the labourers disappeared !!!... 

 

It got to the point when even trying to do things right, the reality was that it's not made easy. 

 

 

There are standards of nurses... the lowest probably don't get paid much at all. 

I've just had an Op...   

- On the 'sterile side' (surgery side) of the hospital the nurses were outstanding. 

- On the 'recovery side' (residential) side of the hospital, the nursers are remarkably average ranging to outright stupid.

 

 

Agreed...  

 

Extremely shameful....    I've heard that before and believe it to be true of some establishments, but the rumour is a popular one to convey amongst expats highlighting how they've scratched the surface of this land.

How many Thais do you see doing construction.  How many American kids do you see bussing tables n high end hotels.  How many Thais do you see cleaning rooms in hotels.

 

The challenge is and has always been that people want to be paid more than the job is worth.  How many young Thais do you know that would clean rooms and change sheets and all for 10k a month?

 

Going to be interesting to see what happens when he minimum wage is raised but some of these stores that are already paying above min don't raise the wages any more than mandated.

Edited September 9, 2023 by kingstonkid