Govt urged to defer wage hike until 2015

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- Business owners yesterday urged the government to postpone until 2015 the increase in the minimum daily wage to Bt300 in 70 provinces.

According to the Central Wage Committee, the pay rise must take place next year.

Federation of Thai Industries vice president Thanit Sorat said the postponement was one of the FTI's nine requests.

And Suwanchai Lohawatanakul, secretarygeneral of the Association for Promotion of Thai Small and Medium Enterprises, said firmly during a meeting with the Labour Ministry that SMEs "need time to adjust" to the sharp rise in the minimum wage.

The meeting was held to garner the opinions of entrepreneurs after the daily wage was increased to Bt300 in seven provinces from April 1.

Suwanchai said that apart from the postponement, the government should also provide soft loans and labourskill development to SMEs.

Thai Chamber of Commerce vice president Phumin Harinsut added that a fund should be set up to offer soft loans to SMEs because these enterprises are not beneficiaries of the government's decision to lower the corporate income tax rate from 30 per cent to 20 per cent for two years.

"The interest rate of the soft loans should be about 12 per cent only," Phumin suggested.

Tourism Council of Thailand vice president Thaniwan Kunmongkhon, who represents restaurant operators and hoteliers, also asked the government to consider introducing more measures to cushion the impact from the wage hike.

"For example, the SME Power Fund should extend the repayment period from eight to 14 years," she said.

Labour Minister Phadermchai Sasomsap said his ministry would look into the requests from the business owners.

"We will also forward their requests to relevant agencies," he said.

He said he would propose that the government reduce the personal income tax for SMEs during the meeting next Monday. Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra will chair the meeting.

However, Phadermchai said there was no clear impact from the wage hike in the seven provinces to warrant a postponement in the other 70 provinces.

"The Central Wage Committee resolution has stipulated that a postponement is possible only in the event of bad economic conditions in Thailand or global economic turmoil," he said.

-- The Nation 2012-04-21

Quote:""The interest rate of the soft loans should be about 12 per cent only," Phumin suggested."

Is this a typo or a joke?

Unfortunantly, it is probably not a joke.

HMMMMMMMMMMM until after the next General Election, hmmmmm, what a jolly good idea! Sure people wont mind, we have not broken a promise just delayed it. Some one said what about the inflation in the country, yes what about it indeed! When you finally get the 300bt a day rise you say "Ghosh that was worth the wait." Or maybe not and you will see you have been had, again.

By the looks of this article, SME owners are a new political group. The Yellow Hard Hats (Y H H)

Ok, Time

HMMMMMMMMMMM until after the next General Election, hmmmmm, what a jolly good idea! Sure people wont mind, we have not broken a promise just delayed it. Some one said what about the inflation in the country, yes what about it indeed! When you finally get the 300bt a day rise you say "Ghosh that was worth the wait." Or maybe not and you will see you have been had, again.

broken promise ??

Look again at who wants to delay the increase.

HMMMMMMMMMMM until after the next General Election, hmmmmm, what a jolly good idea! Sure people wont mind, we have not broken a promise just delayed it. Some one said what about the inflation in the country, yes what about it indeed! When you finally get the 300bt a day rise you say "Ghosh that was worth the wait." Or maybe not and you will see you have been had, again.

broken promise ??

Look again at who wants to delay the increase.

The promise is from the government to the people. If they don't fulfill that promise then its a broken promise, regardless of the reason they use for not fulfilling it.

Posted with Thaivisa App http://apps.thaivisa.com

HMMMMMMMMMMM until after the next General Election, hmmmmm, what a jolly good idea! Sure people wont mind, we have not broken a promise just delayed it. Some one said what about the inflation in the country, yes what about it indeed! When you finally get the 300bt a day rise you say "Ghosh that was worth the wait." Or maybe not and you will see you have been had, again.

broken promise ??

Look again at who wants to delay the increase.

The promise is from the government to the people. If they don't fulfill that promise then its a broken promise, regardless of the reason they use for not fulfilling it.

Posted with Thaivisa App http://apps.thaivisa.com

When does the government ever has to keep the promise? here or anyplace else

HMMMMMMMMMMM until after the next General Election, hmmmmm, what a jolly good idea! Sure people wont mind, we have not broken a promise just delayed it. Some one said what about the inflation in the country, yes what about it indeed! When you finally get the 300bt a day rise you say "Ghosh that was worth the wait." Or maybe not and you will see you have been had, again.

broken promise ??

Look again at who wants to delay the increase.

Promises don't have to be logical, economically rational, or even nationally desirable - in fact the ones that work best are right out of lala-land. But they do have to be HONOURED, or they are BROKEN.

Promises delayed far beyond what the recipient perceived as the due date, while not actually broken, certainly have a cost in terms of credibility. Trying to use a single promised pay rise twice for 2 elections is usually not an electoral success.

And AGAIN, employers make up only one third of the tripartite committee, and are easily outvoted by the the workers and government representatives.

HMMMMMMMMMMM until after the next General Election, hmmmmm, what a jolly good idea! Sure people wont mind, we have not broken a promise just delayed it. Some one said what about the inflation in the country, yes what about it indeed! When you finally get the 300bt a day rise you say "Gosh that was worth the wait." Or maybe not and you will see you have been had, again.

Inflation?

Wage hike impacts food cost in Thailand

Press TV - Today

.

The government has insisted that the 300 baht minimum wage WILL go national at the start of next year.

They also said that they wouldn't increase it to 500 or 700 baht as requested by some businesses.

"Some business leaders have actually proposed raising the minimum wage to 500 to 700 baht a day. But we're not doing that, since it's clear that some businesses simply couldn't adjust," he said.

Yeah, right. Businesses are going to request minimum wages be doubled or tripled.

The relevant bits for those that are hard of reading:

"Business owners yesterday urged the government to postpone until 2015 the increase in the minimum daily wage to Bt300 in 70 provinces."

"However, Phadermchai said there was no clear impact from the wage hike in the seven provinces to warrant a postponement in the other 70 provinces."

I could see delaying the increase for very small businesses, less than five employees say. But larger businesses and especially businesses with over 20 employees need to pay up and stop exploiting their own citizens. If a business can't pay its employees a living wage, then it's not a viable business anyway.

The government has insisted that the 300 baht minimum wage WILL go national at the start of next year.

They also said that they wouldn't increase it to 500 or 700 baht as requested by some businesses.

"Some business leaders have actually proposed raising the minimum wage to 500 to 700 baht a day. But we're not doing that, since it's clear that some businesses simply couldn't adjust," he said.

Yeah, right. Businesses are going to request minimum wages be doubled or tripled.

Companies that are already paying above the minimum wage already would do that to get rid of some of the competition.

Those that have the available cash win.

For the government to even entertain listening to the SME's is in itself an indication that maybe the increase in one hit is going to damage the smaller companies.

Why doesn't the government use the time from now to 2015 to gradually increase wages to the new minimum wage of 300 baht?

Again, what is the minimum wage going to be in 2015?

The relevant bits for those that are hard of reading:

"Business owners yesterday urged the government to postpone until 2015 the increase in the minimum daily wage to Bt300 in 70 provinces."

"However, Phadermchai said there was no clear impact from the wage hike in the seven provinces to warrant a postponement in the other 70 provinces."

Not surprising that Labor Minister Phadermchai would try and defend his government's actions.

It conflicts specifically with what the Federation of Thai Industries was saying the day before:

Another delay in the 300 baht across-the-board-minimum-wage-scheme is being proposed by the Federation of Thai Industries. They are meeting with the Labor Minister tomorrow.

In areas of the country where it has not been implemented yet, they are asking for a delay until January 1, 2015.

They will also be discussing the adverse effects being seen in the 7 provinces where the 300 baht has been implemented.

For the government to even entertain listening to the SME's is in itself an indication that maybe the increase in one hit is going to damage the smaller companies.

Why doesn't the government use the time from now to 2015 to gradually increase wages to the new minimum wage of 300 baht?

Again, what is the minimum wage going to be in 2015?

There was an election promise to get the minimum wage to 1000 baht per day by 2020.

For the government to even entertain listening to the SME's is in itself an indication that maybe the increase in one hit is going to damage the smaller companies.

Why doesn't the government use the time from now to 2015 to gradually increase wages to the new minimum wage of 300 baht?

Again, what is the minimum wage going to be in 2015?

There was an election promise to get the minimum wage to 1000 baht per day by 2020.

Should be really interesting then

Even if all were immediately granted the 300bt per day increase it's still not enough to keep up with inflation.

In the 8 years I've been living here I have seen petrol more than double and housing is a close runner up as are many grocery items.

I know of people here that have university educations (for what they're worth) that are earning the same now as they were 8 years ago,.. except for a pay hike of 400bt per month. No wonder people resort to crimes and scams as means to advancement (heck,.. this works wonders for govt officials so why hot?)

7,500bt per month (300bt per working day) after all expenses and cost of getting to and from work leaves a pittance,.. and now they're saying wait until 2015!

At some point the people will wake up a realize that they have been duped and used as stooges.

I feel sorry for the working classes of this country who are constantly being betrayed and taken extreme advantage of by their own government.

HMMMMMMMMMMM until after the next General Election, hmmmmm, what a jolly good idea! Sure people wont mind, we have not broken a promise just delayed it. Some one said what about the inflation in the country, yes what about it indeed! When you finally get the 300bt a day rise you say "Ghosh that was worth the wait." Or maybe not and you will see you have been had, again.

broken promise ??

Look again at who wants to delay the increase.

The promise is from the government to the people. If they don't fulfill that promise then its a broken promise, regardless of the reason they use for not fulfilling it.

Posted with Thaivisa App http://apps.thaivisa.com

1) the wage committee makes the decision, the government is 1/3 of that

2) the point here is - and you can read it for yourself - that business is requesting the delay.

3) another poster has talked about a broken promise, which is not the case as the government has not delayed the 2nd phase.

There is no broken promise, only the business lobby who wants it to become broken.

HMMMMMMMMMMM until after the next General Election, hmmmmm, what a jolly good idea! Sure people wont mind, we have not broken a promise just delayed it. Some one said what about the inflation in the country, yes what about it indeed! When you finally get the 300bt a day rise you say "Ghosh that was worth the wait." Or maybe not and you will see you have been had, again.

broken promise ??

Look again at who wants to delay the increase.

The promise is from the government to the people. If they don't fulfill that promise then its a broken promise, regardless of the reason they use for not fulfilling it.

Posted with Thaivisa App http://apps.thaivisa.com

1) the wage committee makes the decision, the government is 1/3 of that

2) the point here is - and you can read it for yourself - that business is requesting the delay.

3) another poster has talked about a broken promise, which is not the case as the government has not delayed the 2nd phase.

There is no broken promise, only the business lobby who wants it to become broken.

There is already a broken promise in that the government promised an immediate nationwide minimum wage increase to 300 baht. What the have delivered so far is the increase in only 7 provinces, with the other 70 provinces being delayed by 12 months.

Posted with Thaivisa App http://apps.thaivisa.com

The problem with the wage increase for me is that it is for all employees. I have a small leather workshop, three employees, that makes handcrafted leather items. All the people I hire have no experience, usually they are someone's cousin from some village. Training takes about two weeks before they are making anything usable. i provide the materials and tools they use to get the hang of what we need them to do and I pay half salary during that time. If they are skipping lunch we feed them. I'm not uncaring, but leather costs 120 baht a square foot. It costs me more than 300 baht in supplies to teach them every day. I like teaching people skills they can use to get a better job, but 300 baht salary is pretty high for a completely unskilled person. If I were a bigger company it wouldn't be as hard, but I am new and small. Either i break the law and don't pay 300 during training or I stop hiring people that aren't skilled and can't get work anywhere BTW, I pay higher than average for someone who already has the skills.

1) the wage committee makes the decision, the government is 1/3 of that

2) the point here is - and you can read it for yourself - that business is requesting the delay.

3) another poster has talked about a broken promise, which is not the case as the government has not delayed the 2nd phase.

There is no broken promise, only the business lobby who wants it to become broken.

What desperate lengths you are going to, and convoluted logic you are using, all in the interests of defending this government. Business lobby wasn't the one making promises to the electorate. PTP was. They knew that what they were promising, they might be unable to implement. If you know you might be unable to implement something, surely the thing to do is not promise it, and risk having to break the promise. Of course so. But then if you don't promise it, you don't win votes, and that is what it all comes down to.

There was an election promise to get the minimum wage to 1000 baht per day by 2020.

Bit of trouble with the english there? This is what she said

"I present Vision 2020 with the hope of helping my fellow Thais to form a decision ahead of election day," Yingluck wrote.

She said Pheu Thai, if elected to administer the country, would strive to achieve 20 targets within the next nine years, or two terms of office.

One of those targets being

Entry-level graduate salary of 30,000 baht and daily minimum wage of 1,000 baht.

http://sg.news.yahoo...-071001875.html

strive/strīv/

Verb:

1. Make great efforts to achieve or obtain something.

2. Struggle or fight vigorously: "scholars must strive against bias".

That is why they are called visions as in Vision 2020, a snapshot into the future if you like. They can't guarantee anything but they will try their hardest. That is not an election promise

They can't guarantee anything but they will try their hardest. That is not an election promise

Do they promise to try their hardest?

The government has insisted that the 300 baht minimum wage WILL go national at the start of next year.

They also said that they wouldn't increase it to 500 or 700 baht as requested by some businesses.

"Some business leaders have actually proposed raising the minimum wage to 500 to 700 baht a day. But we're not doing that, since it's clear that some businesses simply couldn't adjust," he said.

Yeah, right. Businesses are going to request minimum wages be doubled or tripled.

yes CP did.....Don't know why and what........maybe it was just a strange joke?

You can fool some of the people some of the time ...........................................................................

The government has insisted that the 300 baht minimum wage WILL go national at the start of next year.

They also said that they wouldn't increase it to 500 or 700 baht as requested by some businesses.

"Some business leaders have actually proposed raising the minimum wage to 500 to 700 baht a day. But we're not doing that, since it's clear that some businesses simply couldn't adjust," he said.

Yeah, right. Businesses are going to request minimum wages be doubled or tripled.

Charoen Pokphand Group (CP) chairman and CEO Dhanin Chearavanont has suggested that Thailand's daily minimum wage should be as high as Bt500.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Minimum-wage-should-be-Bt500-Dhanin-says-30174243.html

The problem with the wage increase for me is that it is for all employees. I have a small leather workshop, three employees, that makes handcrafted leather items. All the people I hire have no experience, usually they are someone's cousin from some village. Training takes about two weeks before they are making anything usable. i provide the materials and tools they use to get the hang of what we need them to do and I pay half salary during that time. If they are skipping lunch we feed them. I'm not uncaring, but leather costs 120 baht a square foot. It costs me more than 300 baht in supplies to teach them every day. I like teaching people skills they can use to get a better job, but 300 baht salary is pretty high for a completely unskilled person. If I were a bigger company it wouldn't be as hard, but I am new and small. Either i break the law and don't pay 300 during training or I stop hiring people that aren't skilled and can't get work anywhere BTW, I pay higher than average for someone who already has the skills.

You will probably find that genuine trainees are exempt, indeed in some trades trainees pay to be trained.

The government has insisted that the 300 baht minimum wage WILL go national at the start of next year.

They also said that they wouldn't increase it to 500 or 700 baht as requested by some businesses.

"Some business leaders have actually proposed raising the minimum wage to 500 to 700 baht a day. But we're not doing that, since it's clear that some businesses simply couldn't adjust," he said.

Yeah, right. Businesses are going to request minimum wages be doubled or tripled.

Charoen Pokphand Group (CP) chairman and CEO Dhanin Chearavanont has suggested that Thailand's daily minimum wage should be as high as Bt500.

http://www.nationmul...s-30174243.html

Isn't CP Group the biggest company in Thailand?