Thai Labour Ministry Hopes To Double Disabled Employment

[webfact]

Labour Ministry hopes to double disabled employment

By The Nation

The Labour Ministry will soon announce a ministerial regulation to encourage public and private agencies to raise the ratio of persons with disabilities hired per employee from 1:200 to 1:100, a senior official said yesterday.

The regulation is in accordance with the Persons with Disabilities' Quality of Life Promotion Act 2007.

Kingkaew Inwang, secretarygeneral of the National Office for Empowerment of Persons with Disability (NEP), said the regulation would increase the number of employers within the legal framework from the existing 6,000 establishments, which currently hire one disabled person per 200 employees, to about 15,000 establishments hiring one disabled person per 100 employees. The regulation covers state agencies, ministries, state enterprises and local administrative organisations.

Employers who do not comply or cannot find a disabled employee will have to pay a contribution to the NEP fund, provide space for disabled persons' activities or buy products made by them.

The contribution will be calculated as half of the office location's minimum daily wage rate times 365 days times the number of disabled persons to be hired.

Otherwise the organisation would have to arrange space for activities, buy products or outsource projects to disabled people with a cash value of the equivalent number of disabled employees' wages.

Urging organisations and disabled people to register at the Employment Department or the local Employment Office, Kingkaew said those who did not comply would face investigation by the NEP and related agencies and receive advice from officials. Continued recalcitrance might result in an assets seizure.

The main idea is to have all agencies and organisations hire more disabled people so they can have vocational opportunities, integrity and selfconfidence and not become burdens on their families. This will lead to sustainable improvements in the quality of life for disabled people, she said.

Since the Persons with Disabilities' Quality of Life Promotion Act came into effect in September 2007, more and more employers have been complying with the law. In 2009, employers contributed Bt80 million to the NEP fund, while last year the figure rose to Bt100 million.

In 2009, 6,197 of 6,547 organisations announced they would employ disabled people, with 3,814 such people finding employment.

Last year, a total of 5,525 organisations, each with more than 200 employees, or 84.39 per cent, followed the law by hiring disabled people, while only 1,022 organisations or 15.61 per cent did otherwise.

After the new regulation comes into effect, it is expected that 12,624 qualifying organisations covering 4.63 million workers will hire 46,362 disabled persons as part of the special quota.

-- The Nation 2011-04-29

[housepainter]

The figures give a figure of just over 3,800 baht per month per person not employed. Does it seem worthwhile then to actually employ someone, as at 125 baht per day lost that can be off set against the cost of ramps, toilet facilities, lifts etc that would have to be installed, to my way of thinking any how.

But then if this is a single sharp end measure then the supporing infra structure as required under EU standards would surely be ignored here. Consider the fact that any 'disabled' facilities are most recent in Thailand, and those with short term memory can recall no facilities at any PTT station, Mall or Bangkok pavement area.

Whilst it is a step in the right direction, it remains a single uncordinated and isolated step that can be ignored and literally paid lip service to. In deed, the cost of fully integrated facilities for the disabled makes it worthwhile paying the derisory fine.

An effective measure would not be to accept the 'engouragement' of measures but rather the legally binging changes in law to force employers to comply with the disability act. Naming and shaming, embargos, lack of ability to bid, withdrawal of Royal patronage, should all be used to compel the improvement of Thai employment law to that resembling first world standards.

However, the common decency one individual shows to another is sadly lacking in Thailand when the disabled are ridiculed and paraded as figures of fun both in the street and on TV. There is something deeply distressing in the Thai psyche where empathy and compassion are denied and the view that 'you deserve it' from some Buddhist punishment of a former life.

The Romans had their gods as the Haitians have their voo doo and the Thais have their Buddhism and with it comes this perverse satisfaction that 'its not me' and they hand out their meagre baht as a personal reward to Buddha. What a warped set of twisted minds we have creaking away on that one.

Until this archaic mumbo mantra jumbo clap trap is curtailed and buried along with lottery numbers on the iguan's back there is no hope, chance or prayer of anything changing anytime soon.

For those of you holding your breath, expect a Pattaya clean up first, followed by a flying pig over Victory Monument.

[nattydread]

having just spent a couple of months in a wheelchair its about time thailand started putting a few ramps in so people can just cross the road never mind get a job