Foreigners in Phuket: Dive shop blitz clarifies instructors' work descriptions

[mrtoad]

What a total load of <deleted>.

[Alwyn]

Brilliant, so as your dive boat crosses over into Krabi waters you need a different work permit from a different provincial office which is impossible so you need two dive instructors on the boat, not to mention a Thai to carry even a mask and flippers, and of course a Thai liaison officer to assist them in fitting the gear.

Surely the boat crossing over into Krabi waters is not required or necessary for instruction in the sea? At this point the diver would become a tour guide and the WP conditions are breached anyway?

[Arkady]

Work permits are the property of the Thai government...

This part is no longer correct. Since the current Working of Aliens Act of 2008 was introduced the work permits are the foreign workers' property and may be retained by them for their records after they have expired or been cancelled.

Being a tour guide is indeed a prohibited occupation but carrying equipment for customers is not. They would have to maintain the instructor was illegally working as a labourer which might not stand up in court.

She is mainly correct but all of them seem to want to throw a bit (or a lot) of their own ideas into the law, rather than just quoting and applying it accurately.

[stiggy]

These regulations and others have been in place for years, nothing new.A simple call to the labor department always clarifies it.

Whats wrong with more Thai dive guides, getting in the industry? for the most part it's the fact Dive stores get paid to train westerners, where as the average Thai can't afford it.

Easily solved by sponsoring a few in to your store, have seen this in a few stores already throughout Thailand, and the same applies in Indonesia.

My old work permit covered me for 5 provinces, and had 4 pages of job description.It was a pain in the backside to administer, also leaving me with no actual WP as it was always somewhere being tweaked or updated.

Glad I no longer work in Thailand

[Dogmatix]

These regulations and others have been in place for years, nothing new.A simple call to the labor department always clarifies it.

Whats wrong with more Thai dive guides, getting in the industry? for the most part it's the fact Dive stores get paid to train westerners, where as the average Thai can't afford it.

Easily solved by sponsoring a few in to your store, have seen this in a few stores already throughout Thailand, and the same applies in Indonesia.

My old work permit covered me for 5 provinces, and had 4 pages of job description.It was a pain in the backside to administer, also leaving me with no actual WP as it was always somewhere being tweaked or updated.

Glad I no longer work in Thailand

There is no regulation saying that WP's are only valid in one province but the Phuket office can only validate them for Phuket. If your company has branches in other provinces or you have other jobs in other provinces you can have those details added in the other provinces.

[stiggy]

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These regulations and others have been in place for years, nothing new.A simple call to the labor department always clarifies it.

Whats wrong with more Thai dive guides, getting in the industry? for the most part it's the fact Dive stores get paid to train westerners, where as the average Thai can't afford it.

Easily solved by sponsoring a few in to your store, have seen this in a few stores already throughout Thailand, and the same applies in Indonesia.

My old work permit covered me for 5 provinces, and had 4 pages of job description.It was a pain in the backside to administer, also leaving me with no actual WP as it was always somewhere being tweaked or updated.

Glad I no longer work in Thailand

There is no regulation saying that WP's are only valid in one province but the Phuket office can only validate them for Phuket. If your company has branches in other provinces or you have other jobs in other provinces you can have those details added in the other provinces.

Errrm isn't that what I said, regulation clearly states you have to add provinces, as stated I had 5 on mine.

[LivinginKata]

6 off topic posts removed

[Evolare]

Thai labor laws for foreigners are fracked up plain and simple even though my wp states ประเทศไทย and I have my own business. My lawyer got me a very wide range description that more or less says anything my business requires.

But in the reception in the office we have an espresso machine I cant make a cappuccino on it and serve it to a customer as that job description is reserved for thais only but im alloved to make a coffee for myself thank buddha for that!

Other Asean countries dont seem to have these regulations so I wonder what thailand will do about that when asean takes effect.

Edited April 5, 2014 by Evolare