Jobs In Israel Scheme Under Investigation: Thailand

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Jobs in Israel scheme under investigation

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- A deputy Department of Employment directorgeneral has been under investigation for launching - while his superior was away - an urgent employment scheme to seek Thai workers for jobs in Israel.

A Labour Ministry committee has been set up to find out whether Sumeth Mahosot benefited himself or anyone by issuing a request for a large number of Thai workers to fill jobs in Israel in February, said permanent secretary Somkiat Chayasriwong. Directorgeneral Prawit Khiangphol was travelling overseas at the time.

The DoE is now launching a job search for 1,000 Thai workers through a government to government contract which would require much lower fees for successful applicants,Prawit said yesterday. There are 6,596 workers applying for Israelbased positions.

Three job placement firms based in Udon Thani had been under investigation, for demanding fees as high as Bt200,000, he said, adding that one has had its licence suspended while a probe on the two other is underway.

Under the DoEheld scheme, the fee would be no more than Bt70,000 and the first 200 successful applicants would be leaving soon for Israel, said deputy permanent secretary Songsri Bussaba.

The scheme had been supervised by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and Songsri reminded another applicants on a waiting list to leave their mobile phones open. IOM officials in Thailand will call others on the list if the selected ones could not be contacted after two days.

There were 6,338 Thai workers accepted for jobs in Israel in 2009, another 8,136 workers in 2010 and 9,333 last year. Around 25,000 Thai workers are employed in Israel and the total remuneration sent to Thailand was around Bt4 billion last year.

In a jobpromotion campaign in Udon Thani yesterday, Labour Minister Phadermchai Sasomsap led a team of ministry officials to meet with locals and the applicants at a university campus. He said the cheaper fees under the scheme would include Bt39,000 in air tickets, and vowed to stop job placement firms from scamming Thai workers.

Phadermchai said a crackdown on cheating firms would be expanded to Khon Kaen, Nong Bua Lamphu, Nong Khai and Surin.

Regulations on fees allowed to be collected from applicants would be soon amended, said Sanga Sanguanwong, a personal secretary to Phadermchai.

The new regulations would require the firms to specify clearly how much would be paid for what expenses while criteria in other related laws would be clarified to prevent ministry officials using favouritism to benefit certain firms or applicants, Sanga added.

-- The Nation 2012-03-28

[laurentbkk]

how easy for thais to work abroad ... how complicated for foreigner to work in Thailand ....

[RickBradford]

how easy for thais to work abroad ... how complicated for foreigner to work in Thailand

Oh, I don't know -- there are heaps of Cambodians working in the rice paddies round here, and plenty of Burmese in the local fruit canning factory, they don't seem to have any problems working here.

[belg]

i hope they will ask to emploi 4 israeli / palestinian for each thai work permit and 2.000.000 baht in registered capital

that would only be fair, no ?

[Skywalker69]

how easy for thais to work abroad ... how complicated for foreigner to work in Thailand ....

[janetrizzo]

So sorry those poor Thais get scammed. israelis are notorious for mistreating Thai workers. Its a very sad and untold story.

[h90]

Israel

PTP-Thai Government

Fee for being allowed to work

That doesn't smell good.

[coralia]

You don't seem to get it. It's about Thais scamming Thais, not Israelis scamming Thais.

[h90]

You don't seem to get it. It's about Thais scamming Thais, not Israelis scamming Thais.

did you read the second line?

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Thai workers in Israel want tax safeguards

THE NATION

BANGKOK: -- Negotiations between Israeli authorities and Thailand's Department of Employment to ensure Israeli employers return to their workers income-tax refund money owing at the end of their contracts, have been called for at the initiative of Labour Minister Phadermchai Sasomsap.

The action follows complaints from many Thai workers upon their return home.

Speaking yesterday during his current visit to Udon Thani, Phadermchai said workers had told him Israeli employers, during 20 years of bilateral employment deals, demanded that the Thais sign agreements that they did not wish to have income-tax payments reimbursed when their contracts ended. The penalty for not complying would be that they received no salaries at all, or would be unable to return to Thailand.

"This is no small issue, as Thai workers are entitled to earn fully what they should get. Their money has been lost to Israeli employers in large amounts. I've ordered the DoE to look into the issue and sort it out through negotiations with the Israeli authorities," he said.

DoE director-general Prawit Khiangphol said income tax on Thai workers was 10 per cent, and it was deducted by employers throughout the employment period. But the amount was not returned to Thai workers, who had no choice but to sign agreements saying they did not wish to receive it. Many Thai workers who launched successful lawsuits against their employers were given half the amount, losing the other half in lawyers' fees.

Prawit said he would seek negotiations through the Thai Embassy in Israel, asking the Israeli government to tell the employers hiring Thai workers to return any income tax owed to them when their contracts ended, or when they returned to Thailand.

A Udon Thani local, who worked in Israel and asked not to be named, said he had not been reimbursed about Bt240,000 in deducted income tax after working under a five-year deal that ended last year. "A total of Bt4.8 million earned by myself and 19 others who worked together has been lost," he said.

The source said he had learned that some people who had worked in Israel for more than 20 years were demanding the same deal with employers. He said many who sued for their tax reimbursement lost the lawsuits, because they had agreed not to receive the tax reimbursement.

Pongphol Saengkaew, a Thai working in Israel for 13 years, said it was easier and more convenient for Thais to seek employment through private job-placement firms, rather than a government-to-government scheme arranged by the DoE, despite much higher service fees.

He said there had not been mediators to look after Thai workers when they had problems through the state-assisted channel. Any assistance provided upon their request through embassy contacts was processed slowly.

-- The Nation 2012-03-29

[Morch]

The "import" of foreign workers to Israel has long been considered a somewhat murky territory, Some of the players involved aren't what you'd call "nice people", and government policy about this is not quite clear - hard talk on deportation and regulation, while issuing more permits at the same time.

While there are scams and different forms of abuse by agents (both Israeli and Thai) and direct employers, I do not think the situation is very different compared with the state of Thai workers in other countries - http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/427718-thai-berry-pickers-no-fruits-for-their-labour-in-sweden/.

Not sure regarding the current tax regulations in this case, but as far as I know making a worker sign a waver for tax returns is not legal. There are various deductions for health care, insurance, rent etc, but that's not quite the same thing.

There are several organizations helping workers claim their rights, but of course, not all workers are aware of their rights or are willing to risk future employment prospects.