stevehaigh Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 police in phuket must have the best job the world, state sponsored mafia with a badge. all my builders are Burmese and they all have some kind of laborer work permit but that doesn't stop the police showing up every few days and demanding a payoff. my builder pays, so its not my personal problem but its just getting a bit much these days. they got stopped in the pickup this a.m. at Chalong circle, 20,000 baht for 5 Burmese! then the immigration police (if that's what there are, no uniform, no badge) show up once a week for 10 grand or so. my builder has to be loosing money on this job because of all the payoffs and i know what's going to happen, he'll go broke and i end up with a half finished house. better start recruiting some Thai's i guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScubaBuddha Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 Lots of reports of fraud and extortion around this kind of thing. By that I mean fake cops doing the extorting instead of the regular ones. If your laborers are legal, I would make a complaint. If they aren't.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevenl Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 If they're legal, there are no shakedowns possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thaiwanderer Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 stevehaigh, if the police didn't keep turning up would you care about these Burmese labourers and taking advantage of them? Presumably you have ensured you haven't cut any corners on any Thai laws. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petercallen Posted October 26, 2011 Share Posted October 26, 2011 stevehaigh, if the police didn't keep turning up would you care about these Burmese labourers and taking advantage of them? Presumably you have ensured you haven't cut any corners on any Thai laws. Steve has a builder he personally is not employing the labour He just wants his house built Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thaiwanderer Posted October 26, 2011 Share Posted October 26, 2011 (edited) stevehaigh, if the police didn't keep turning up would you care about these Burmese labourers and taking advantage of them? Presumably you have ensured you haven't cut any corners on any Thai laws. Steve has a builder he personally is not employing the labour He just wants his house built He is well aware and is entirely responsible for that. Wanting his house built (cheaply) isn't all he wants - he wants to point a finger. In any case I'm sure he can speak for himself. Edited October 26, 2011 by thaiwanderer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steelepulse Posted October 26, 2011 Share Posted October 26, 2011 When I built my house, we had some Burmese Labourers and they were all legal. Quite often immigration came out to check on paperwork and not one time did my builder say he had to pay a bribe. I have to agree with Scuba Buddha that it's the scamsters that are collecting this money. I would advise my builder to verify with the relevant authorities about the legitimacy of these collecting the bribes. I'm sure the legal cops don't like imposters making a play on their turf. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petercallen Posted October 26, 2011 Share Posted October 26, 2011 stevehaigh, if the police didn't keep turning up would you care about these Burmese labourers and taking advantage of them? Presumably you have ensured you haven't cut any corners on any Thai laws. Steve has a builder he personally is not employing the labour He just wants his house built He is well aware and is entirely responsible for that. Wanting his house built (cheaply) isn't all he wants - he wants to point a finger. In any case I'm sure he can speak for himself. If he wanted to build cheaply he would not use a builder but build himself As a lot of spec builders who post on this forum do, hoping to get a newbie buyer They certainly would not find a Thai buyer unless they were very lucky Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thaiwanderer Posted October 26, 2011 Share Posted October 26, 2011 If he wanted to build cheaply he would not use a builder but build himself As a lot of spec builders who post on this forum do, hoping to get a newbie buyer They certainly would not find a Thai buyer unless they were very lucky So he's ensuring his builder is paying the Thai minimum wage? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petercallen Posted October 26, 2011 Share Posted October 26, 2011 The OP is using a Builder, why would it be his job to check what the builder paid his employees??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thaiwanderer Posted October 26, 2011 Share Posted October 26, 2011 The OP is using a Builder, why would it be his job to check what the builder paid his employees??? Because he's pontificating about the actions of the Police. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petercallen Posted October 26, 2011 Share Posted October 26, 2011 The OP is using a Builder, why would it be his job to check what the builder paid his employees??? Because he's pontificating about the actions of the Police. Maybe they are not police but people claiming to be police No reason to bash the man/woman We all know of difference con men operating here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starkey_rich Posted October 26, 2011 Share Posted October 26, 2011 stevehaigh, if the police didn't keep turning up would you care about these Burmese labourers and taking advantage of them? Presumably you have ensured you haven't cut any corners on any Thai laws. Steve has a builder he personally is not employing the labour He just wants his house built He is well aware and is entirely responsible for that. Wanting his house built (cheaply) isn't all he wants - he wants to point a finger. In any case I'm sure he can speak for himself. Where does it say he wants the house built cheaply. He just wants his house finished. If I was him I would try to stick with the Burmese labourers It would take twice as long if you had to use the lazy natives. Pity the Burmese get paid less for twice what the other lot could achieve OH by the way do you Live in Bang Tao? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thaiwanderer Posted October 26, 2011 Share Posted October 26, 2011 stevehaigh, if the police didn't keep turning up would you care about these Burmese labourers and taking advantage of them? Presumably you have ensured you haven't cut any corners on any Thai laws. Steve has a builder he personally is not employing the labour He just wants his house built He is well aware and is entirely responsible for that. Wanting his house built (cheaply) isn't all he wants - he wants to point a finger. In any case I'm sure he can speak for himself. Where does it say he wants the house built cheaply. He just wants his house finished. If I was him I would try to stick with the Burmese labourers It would take twice as long if you had to use the lazy natives. Pity the Burmese get paid less for twice what the other lot could achieve OH by the way do you Live in Bang Tao? Unfortunately Burmese tend not to be used because they are artisans. He may well be paying over the odds but that doesn't mean the money rolls downhill. Why on earth would I live in Bang Tao? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharp Posted October 26, 2011 Share Posted October 26, 2011 me thinks there not legal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevehaigh Posted November 9, 2011 Author Share Posted November 9, 2011 my builder says they have work permits but how do i know? all i know is the so called police show up, we (my wife really) explains they don't work for us and she calls the builder. he talks to the 'police', they look at the docs, he hands over several thousand baht and the police go away. as to why we are using Burmese; are there any Thai building teams in Phuket? i haven't seen any. you can tell the workers in the back of the trucks are all Burmese from the yellow face paint. are we exploiting them? i don't think so. they make 5 times more here than in Burma and get to send money home. they are free to leave one boss and join another team for more money any time they like, as my builder has found out recently. and i do think they are doing a better job than my previous Essan building teams. at least my door and window frames are perfectly straight and level. something i could never get Thai's to figure out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigC Posted November 9, 2011 Share Posted November 9, 2011 (edited) If they're legal, there are no shakedowns possible. come on don't be nie eve this is thailand. there again how can the customer be sure that the builders are not playing a pitty scam. some of these ptty scams can be quite connvicing. I think that something is definatly wrong. either they are being extorted then they might as well go home or they are trying to throw you a sob story. Surly your contractor is Thai and he has paper work to prove that the Burmease have permits. Definatly something wrong if they were paying that much they would just leave unless the police have some other reason to be collecting from them. maybe they have been in trouble somewhere else now they have to pay to keep out of jail. who know. then like u said it might be local mafia. i do not know why if u were breaking your back and you were making a lose from extortion then why would you stay. like you siad be strong. It ain't your problem as long as the work gets done then there are plenty more sob stories to listen to in other places Edited November 9, 2011 by BigC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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