Unemployed To Get Assistance From Thai Labour Ministry

[webfact]

Unemployed to get assistance from Labour Ministry

By Digital Media

BANGKOK, Jan 9 – The Labour Ministry has prepared 120,000 jobs for workers who may lose their jobs due to the Bt300 minimum wage, while more than 2,400 currently unemployed persons have sought compensation from the Social Security Office.

Labour Minister Phadermchai Sasomsub said 7,647 unemployed workers claimed compensation from the ministry between January 2-6. Among the group, 2,479 persons said they were laid off while 5,168 persons said they quit their jobs.

In the first phase of minimum wage increases in seven provinces in April-December last year, the Social Security Office paid Bt1.18 billion compensation to 243,141 laid-off workers.

Pravit Khiengpol, director general of the Employment Department, said his agency is cooperating with the Labour Protection and Welfare Department and the Skill Development Department in sending mobile units to several provinces with large numbers of unemployed workers including Nakhon Pathom, Saraburi and Buriram to enable such workers to register for compensation from the Social Security Office.

The Employment Department will find new jobs for unemployed workers while skill training will be given upon request. (MCOT online news)

-- TNA 2013-01-09

[looping]

Quite perverse that the worst policies win elections.

[Thait Spot]

Someone is being very economical with the truth concerning job figures

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Thaivisa Connect App

[tb86]

How do people who quit their jobs qualify for anything?

[livinthailandos]

To Thait I totally agree with your comment and 1 interesting part that caught my attention which I look foward to seeing how this year plays out since the increase wage increase in all provinces

In the first phase of minimum wage increases in seven provinces in April-December last year, the Social Security Office paid Bt1.18 billion compensation to 243,141 laid-off workers. <--- I had to re-look at that number 2 times. Would like to know how they found they figure. If that many people where laid-off and that was from just 7 provinces, then this year I wonder...

How many people will be laid off when all the remaining provinces get the new increase??

[Pib]

You know, with the minimum wage reaching 300 baht/day across Thailand that may be a high enough level to where we will see a permanent change in the normal (very low) unemployment rate and the rate moves to a new (higher) norm.

[joseph49]

To Thait I totally agree with your comment and 1 interesting part that caught my attention which I look foward to seeing how this year plays out since the increase wage increase in all provinces

In the first phase of minimum wage increases in seven provinces in April-December last year, the Social Security Office paid Bt1.18 billion compensation to 243,141 laid-off workers. <--- I had to re-look at that number 2 times. Would like to know how they found they figure. If that many people where laid-off and that was from just 7 provinces, then this year I wonder...

How many people will be laid off when all the remaining provinces get the new increase??

Can u help,? I have a friend who cannot work due to illness has had job in the past , is there any assistance,

either medical, or social from any gov dept , what are the choices for people like this in Thailand?.

any help would be appreciated....

Jo,,

[rubl]

While all workers get at least 300 Baht a day, unemployed get assistance, we also have the fine effects of all this wonderful 'everybody rich' activity stimulated by the government:

"Thailand's imports of luxury goods increased almost 50%"

http://www.thaivisa....3/#entry6002579

[whybother]

How do people who quit their jobs qualify for anything?

People who pay social security every month get access to some unemployment benefits whether they are fired or quit.

[Ricardo]

Not to worry, all these possibly-excess-to-requirements workers will surely be fully-employed, constructing the Thaksin Plodprasop Save-Bangkok Dam and the Chinese dual-track high-speed freight-railway, both of which are due for completion within the lifetime of the current government.

Oh, and Father Christmas will bring an amnesty, by the end of the year, even for truly-naughty 'boys' !

Edited January 9, 2013 by Ricardo

[orchidlady]

The workers are in for a rude awakening if they expect to get helped. See this link on voacambodia which talks about workers laid off from Mfone(owned by Thaksin) without notice and compensation due. Company won't meet with the workers. http://www.voacambodia.com/content/fired-phone-company-workers-file-complaint/1579895.html

[marshbags]

This was always going to happen and was predictable I am sad to say..

Yet another populist favoured policy is turning out to be anything but what it is supposedly meant to do... enhance the standard of living of the less well off eloctorate ect.ect. and impove their lives ect., what a disgraceful con it all is.

We can also look forward to excessive rises to not only subsidise this increase but enrich the pockets and bank accounts yet further of many who boasted about how it was going to help the poorer workers prior to the elections and onwards.

Another devious way for the employers and all who go down the chain of greedy unscrupulous suppliers to take advantage and add rises that will finish up costing everyone big time when they go shopping.

I note also that the mentioned failure of fair redundency payments in several cases are not being given and the government are not comitted to sincerely addressing this by way of compensation either.

Incidently Thaksins is reported as being a party to this in relation to a company he is connected to in Cambodia and the laying off of quite a few employees there, many long term who should expect to get redundency payments Hmmmmmm.

That,s the rice pledging and the 300 baht that Yingluck was praised for and now we await the third re the benefits the first car / vehicle provides for those who will be / are enriching themselves from the proceeds... rather than assist Thailands wealth and in turn benefit it,s citizens as it is / was boasted to do in regard to the poorer members of society.

History will show once again how unscrupulous the Shinwatara's and their coherts are ect. ect.

1997 here we go again I,m loathe to say.

I cannot see them lasting out their term in office not only as a result of the economy, but the many other issues that are destroying Thailand and as for reconcilation.......... forget it, more of the opposite i,m sad to say.

marshbags

Edited January 9, 2013 by marshbags

[Rancid]

Quite perverse that the worst policies win elections.

Worst policies = who promises the most. Elections have become a bidding game, usually the morons that win are gone before the bill is handed in. East or West, what is the difference? The rich still get richer regardless though.

[caughtintheact]

Someone above mentioned a low unemployment rate. The article counts almost 400,000 to add to the unemployment rolls: 243,141+130,000=373,141. This number does not even start to count the number of people wanting to enter the labor force that will not get jobs because companies cannot afford to hire more people at the increased minimum wage rate, or simply because companies will relocate and not be in Thailand to hire any Thai labor. Will that number of lost job opportunities be in the thousands, hundreds of thousands? So instead of rescinding the minimum wage increase, the government will spend more taxpayer money to give away to people who are quite capable of working, but have at least temporarily lost their jobs because of government interference in the labor market. Does that make any sense?

There is a severe impact that cannot be measured - the number of people that want to enter the labor market, do not have jobs, need the money and the training, are usually young and/or inexperienced and/or poor, and will not get employment in companies that cannot afford to hire them because of the minimum wage increase or companies that will no longer be here to hire them. How many more companies will relocate to other countries?

Minimum wage increases are given to everyone who has a job and is making less than the minimum wage. It is also given to new employees that are not qualified for more pay, if a company can afford to hire them. But companies hire more people when they need to increase the production of their products based on increased consumer demand for the products that the company makes. Higher demand means more revenue for the company that they use to pay the additional labor they hire. Governments never want to tell the people about the plight of those that want jobs which will not be available because of the minimum wage increase. There are also impacts on consumer prices that governments do not want to talk about.

[livinthailandos]

good points posted. have to see over the year what the numbers are though.

my concern though as this was a populist move I fear than within 2 years the puppet government in order to stay in power will come back and say if you keep me in power I'll make the new minimum wage to be 400 per day. after all they don't care if they ruin the economy or to have businesses close as long as they stay in power.

Sent from my GT-I9300T using Thaivisa Connect App

[hellodolly]

To Thait I totally agree with your comment and 1 interesting part that caught my attention which I look foward to seeing how this year plays out since the increase wage increase in all provinces

In the first phase of minimum wage increases in seven provinces in April-December last year, the Social Security Office paid Bt1.18 billion compensation to 243,141 laid-off workers. <--- I had to re-look at that number 2 times. Would like to know how they found they figure. If that many people where laid-off and that was from just 7 provinces, then this year I wonder...

How many people will be laid off when all the remaining provinces get the new increase??

It did not say they were all laid off due to the raise in minimum wages. Many were probably all ready on it.

[Thaddeus]

I eagerly await a statement from GK about the 100% employment rate.

[cup-O-coffee]

Most government assistance offices I ever needed in times of unemployment were always crowded with those who make a living out of getting government assistance. It is usually the same with criminal courts. The few who pass through them for misdemeanors get to see all those who make a living out of being smarter than lawyers so they can break the law,

The ones who really need assistance and leniency (hard working, decent people) are usually pushed aside by those who make a living out of leaching off the government teat due to their character defects or knowledge of the system. They are the lazy trash of society, and they seem to collect at government houses; making it almost impossible for the legitimate citizenry to get fair representation. The trash of society coagulates and clogs the arteries of government; bringing it to its knees and rendering it absolutely ineffective.

Government attracts trash, and government workers (former trash themselves) get overworked and burned out dealing with that trash, and subsequently grows larger to deal with the trash that is proportionately growing with it.

When any decent, hard working citizen needs help or makes a mistake and needs leniency, they are faced with tired, burned out, incompetent government workers who make the whole promise as savory as the thought of eating a shit pie.

This is simply one facet of a many faceted chunk of petrified crap. Most developed countries have made a mess of their government assistance programs, and their criminal court cases are backed up for years. I cannot imagine that Thailand is anywhere near being a role model for the rest of the world, and hence their promises really must irritate to no end any sensible person who hears them or reads about them.

Edited January 9, 2013 by cup-O-coffee

[alanr1610]

Baht 300 / day my arse. If thats the case then why is it that today in Buriram the motor giant Toyota is advertising for sales staff Baht 5000/ month + commision. Hardly meets the national minimum wage does it. Also it should be said it is a minimum wage normally offered at low level entry employment.

[caughtintheact]

Baht 300 / day my arse. If thats the case then why is it that today in Buriram the motor giant Toyota is advertising for sales staff Baht 5000/ month + commision. Hardly meets the national minimum wage does it. Also it should be said it is a minimum wage normally offered at low level entry employment.

I suspect that minimum wages apply to people who are paid by the day or hour, under the Labour Protection Act, but not to salaried people, like those in sales. Minimum wage earners can get O/T pay, but not sales people getting commissions the way I read the Labour Protection Act of 1998 (which has a number of modifications). Maybe one of the lawyers on this forum can pinpoint the chapter and verse.

[stoli]

How do people who quit their jobs qualify for anything?

As an employer in the US, it always amazed me that people could quit their job and still get unemployment insurance paid to them, but it happened quite frequently unfortunately. You could write all the letters you wanted to stating that this employee just quit for no reason, and it meant nothing to the unemployment office. They always got their checks, which now is for 99 weeks!

[stoli]

How do people who quit their jobs qualify for anything?

People who pay social security every month get access to some unemployment benefits whether they are fired or quit.

Social Security taxes and Unemployment Insurance taxes are two different things. Employees do not pay anything towards unemployment taxes, which are completely shouldered by the business. (I should add that I am talking about US) Not sure about Thai law.

Edited January 11, 2013 by stoli