Labour organisations march for minimum wage rise

[webfact]

Labour organisations march for minimum wage rise
By The Nation

 

 

BANGKOK: -- Some 3,000 members of labour organisations joined a rally on Monday to mark International Worker's Day and call for the government to solve inequity while taking care of workers' quality of life and security.

 

They called for “more realistic wages”, saying the Bt300 minimum daily wage should be increased to cover basic living costs. 

 

The morning rally from Democracy Monument to the United Nations office involved the Thai Labour Solidarity Committee (TLSC), the State Enterprises Workers' Relations Conferderation (SERC), the Eastern Labour Union Group and the Thailand Tobacco Monopoly State Enterprise Workers Union. 

 

TLSC secretary-general Savit Kaewwan, TLSC deputy chairman Chalee Loysung and SERC secretary-general Prakob Parimon spoke from the back of a truck as the march progressed.

 

Savit said this year labour organisations were not content with merely calling for a minimum wage increase as had happened in the past -- but wanted structural reform for fair and equal wages nationwide.

 

He said the minimum wage must be raised above Bt310 so workers could properly look after their families.

 

He said workers had previously submitted a 10-demand proposal to Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha. 

 

The 10 demands include a call for the government to provide a good quality welfare to all citizens and a called for fair payment across all sectors via a wage structure that provides incremental wage rises every year. 

 

They also demanded the government ratify three related conventions.

 

Full story: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/breakingnews/30313903

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-05-01

[Bob12345]

Quote

He said the minimum wage must be raised above Bt310 so workers could properly look after their families.

So how much does he want?

It helps to put some numbers down so we get an idea how far they are off to properly supporting their families.

 

Its a simple question and the first thing that comes to mind when reading this, I just wish the writer of this story also had an interest in news so he could have asked that instead of just repeating what was said and printing it.

[gandalf12]

20 minutes ago, Bob12345 said:

So how much does he want?

It helps to put some numbers down so we get an idea how far they are off to properly supporting their families.

 

Its a simple question and the first thing that comes to mind when reading this, I just wish the writer of this story also had an interest in news so he could have asked that instead of just repeating what was said and printing it.

Bht 500 a day wouldn't be unrealistic.

[anotheruser]

The problem is if you raise the minimum wage to 500 Baht, you are not moving those on the bottom closer to the top. What you are doing is moving the middle closer to the bottom. That semi-skilled guy that was doing okay on 600 Baht now only makes a tad more than minimum wage. 

 

It seems like it moves the poverty line up and what you end up with is people make more to live at the poverty line. It never really changes anything. They made the minimum wage $15 an hour in Washington state. The idea was $15 an hour put everybody above the federal poverty level guidelines. The problem is that OTR trucker or fresh out of college grad that was making $18 an hour is now living in poverty. Not everybody gets a raise to compensate so you have just devalued the skills of a lot of people in the pecking order. 

 

This is why I think you are moving the middle to the bottom by doing this. The bottom tier didn't make any meaningful gain compared to the top tier. So for an ex pat let's say on 60,000 Baht a month... if you put the bottom level at 18,000 a month up from 10,000 a month you just moved them one step down the ladder.

 

If you want to see Thailand become very expensive very quickly for those on fixed budgets of around 60,000 a month by all means raise the minimum wage.