Night Workers Must Be Protected By Labour Laws

[george]

Night workers must be protected by labour laws, union and NHRC say

BANGKOK: -- Advocates for night workers urged the Labour Ministry yesterday to take care of almost 300,000 employees working in night entertainment venues, who they said were not protected by employment laws and often taken advantage of by unscrupulous bosses.

The tragic fire that engulfed Pattaya's Route 999 club, which killed eight people, was a prime example of how night workers were left unprotected, according to Chantawipa Apisuk, director of the Centre for Sex Workers' Protection (also known as Empower).

She said fire exits at the Pattaya club were useless, because the operators locked them to stop customers slipping out the door without paying.

Chantawipa said night workers should be protected by labour laws, because they usually clocked in and out and were paid a fixed salary of Bt3,000-4,000 a month.

She said night workers got a raw deal - they were rejected as possible members of social-security schemes because their employers claimed they weren't interested in long-term positions and tend to skip from one place to the next at short notice.

"The Labour Ministry must accept that night workers exist and take care of them," she said.

"There are nearly 300,000 workers at night entertainment places, but they receive no welfare, no condoms for sex workers, and some don't even have access to toilets - because they're reserved strictly for customers, leaving staff to pay to use toilets elsewhere."

Chiang Mai police had also banned poles in go-go bars, forcing dancers to use hand-straps from the roof instead, Chantawipa said.

A go-go dancer in Chiang Mai city said the absence of poles made dancing in high heels on counters more difficult. The dancer said some performers appeared on stage as many as four times a night, for an hour each time, and suffered sore muscles and inflammation. And they had to shoulder the expense of treatment, she said.

However, Chiang Mai deputy commander Colonel Chamnan Ruadrew insisted police were authorised to take the poles out of go-go bars that put on obscene or immoral shows.

Chiang Mai Empower official Tanta Laowila-wanyakul said sex workers and hostesses or "drinking companions" also suffered at the hands of employers.

The hostesses hardly ever got their full Bt3,000 salary, because employers sought ways to cut their pay -for example, when they asked for days off on weekends. Sometimes workers were penalised at a rate of Bt500 a day, she said.

If bar hostesses didn't manage to convince customers to buy at least 10 drinks a night, they faced the threat of being fired, Tanta said. And if one was raped and filed a police complaint, they generally faced a prostitution charge also, she said.

National Human Rights Commissioner Naiyana Supapueng said night workers should be protected by the Labour Protection Act and the Labour Relations Act.

But since night-oriented establishments fell under the Service Places Act of 1966, and had an image of being vice-prone with late-night alcohol sales, such businesses were treated differently from others, she said.

But that didn't mean workers should be discriminated against, she said.

Labour Ministry protection bureau director Sathaporn Charupa said if an entertainment venue paid their employees and had them clock in and out, it was bound by labour laws in all aspects of payment and workers' welfare, including social security membership.

He said the office knew all about workers at night entertainment venues, had taken them into account and would in future be more strict on them. He did not give any further details.

--The Nation 2006-06-17