Labour law panic eases

[rooster59]

Labour law panic eases

By PRATCH RUJIVANAROM
THE NATION

 

 

Registration for Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos to start on july 24; centres to be set up for migrant verification.

 

TENSION FROM the new labour law has eased as Thailand and three neighbouring nations have been working together to legalise illegal migrant workers.  

 

Starting from July 24, Thai employers can start registering their Lao, Cambodian and Myanmar workers – including those without any identification document or work permit – at temporary centres across the country until August 7. 

 

Cambodian Labour Minister Ith Samheng, who came to Thailand for a meeting with his Thai counterpart General Sirichai Dithakul, has offered to issue necessary documents to Cambodian workers in Thailand’s fishing industry in Rayong and Songkhla provinces within one day. 

 

“Cambodia has also promised to expedite the distribution of 160,000 passports to Cambodian migrants in Thailand within 100 days,” Sirichai said yesterday.  

 

 

Labour Ministry spokesman Ananchai Uthaipatanacheep added that Ith had agreed to consider opening up nationality-verification centres in Thailand for Cambodian migrants.  

 

“He has said he will discuss the matter with relevant officials in Cambodia,” Ananchai said.  

 

If Cambodia agrees to open such centres, it will be the second country to have arranged similar services in the wake of Thailand’s Executive Decree on Foreign Workers Management.  

 

This week, Myanmar confirmed that it will set up six temporary centres to verify Myanmar migrants in Thailand. Sirichai will soon head to Vientiane to discuss the issue with the Lao government.  

 

Taking effect from June 23, the executive decree has caused a stir. As the new law prescribes harsh punishments against illegal workers and their employers, thousands of migrants have left Thailand lately, affecting various businesses.

 

Because of the confusion and panic, Thai authorities decided to grant a grace period until the end of this year.  

 

On Thursday, just 1,869 workers crossed the border back to Myanmar via Tak’s Mae Sot district, compared to between 4,500 and 6,000 a day earlier.

Millions of workers from neighbouring countries work in Thailand, many illegally.  

 

Sirichai said that after he talked to his Lao counterpart, between July 10 and 11, he expected clearer guidelines would be issued to facilitate the legalisation of migrant workers.  

 

Sirichai has already signed a ministerial regulation on how migrant workers can obtain work permits.

 

The process involving Thai authorities is now clearer. Migrants holding passports, temporary passports, travel documents, or a certificate of identity with visas, but having no work permit, can apply for a work permit at the employment office in the province in which they are now working. The work permit will be issued and valid until March 31, 2018. 

 

Migrants who no longer work for the same employer named at the time their temporary work permit was issued can contact Thai authorities to register their new employers too.  

 

Ananchai said that employers of migrants who do not have identification documents can register them with the temporary migrant worker registration centres that are going to operate in Thailand between July 24 and August 7.  

 

“Upon registration, they will get the letter of demand that can help their workers process their nationality verification at relevant centres,” he said. 

For Myanmar migrants, there will be six temporary verification centres in Thailand in the near future: two based in Samut Sakhon province, one in Samut Prakan province, and another in Ranong province, another in Tak province and the other in Chiang Rai province.  

 

Migrant workers who receive a passport, a temporary passport, or a certificate of identity, will have to contact immigration offices in their province to get a visa. The visa fee is Bt500 and is valid until March 31, 2018. After the workers get the visa, their employers must contact provincial immigration offices again, this time with their workers to apply for work permits.  

 

When receiving a work permit, migrant workers will be required to undergo a health check and buy health insurance for a Bt1,600 fee.  

 

If Cambodian and Lao governments agree to set up nationality-verification centres in Thailand, migrants will have no need to return to their home country. However, if the centres are not open here, they will be given the necessary documents to make the trip back to their home country, have their nationality verified, and come back. 

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/national/30320193

 

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-07-08

[Samui Bodoh]

Let me see if I have all this straight.

 

A new law, enacted without any real forethought or consultation and at short notice, proposes whopping fines to those who do not comply. After the law is enacted and thousands of lives and businesses are badly disrupted. Then, the law's implementation is suspended for a while. After that, a horrible bureaucratic process is created which will cost a couple of thousand baht to workers who are already paid very very little. And even if all procedures are followed perfectly, the workers are only safe until March 2018. And, none of what I have written deals with the 'unofficial' costs.

 

What a colossal waste of time and money. And for no real good reason.

 

PS the Cambodian government has said "“Cambodia has also promised to expedite the distribution of 160,000 passports to Cambodian migrants in Thailand within 100 days,”.  

 

There is a snowball's chance in hell that this will happen.

 

La plus ca change...

 

[Cadbury]

Also the exodus has probably slowed because many cannot afford the "exit fee" being extorted by the police and other officials.

[Cadbury]

30 minutes ago, Samui Bodoh said:

What a colossal waste of time and money. And for no real good reason.

I suspect the good reason is greed as usual. And that "connected" people want to get their grubby little fingers on those "whopping fines". Corruption in Thailand knows no bounds. It is like a snowball rolling down the hill.

[Stargeezr]

Hey if this adds up, to be lots of tea money, Well yahoo,  and good luck Thailand.

  Guess we will see how Thailand fares with out all of those illegal workers.

  The neighbours will have to cough up some quick new passports etc for their population.

Nice work!  And yes I am being sarcastic.

Geezedr

[Srikcir]

4 hours ago, rooster59 said:

160,000 passports to Cambodian migrants

With the Thai processing fee totaling almost Bt3,000 per migrant (unclear about any cost for re-entry) Thailand gets in effect a significant "border" tax on low-income Cambodian migrants. For the migrants, the fees cost them about 10 days pay assuming Bt300 per day earnings. Considering the impact on the Thai economy if migrants stopped coming into Thailand to work, the processing fees seem an unfair burden on the migrants.

[sawadee1947]

59 minutes ago, Srikcir said:

With the Thai processing fee totaling almost Bt3,000 per migrant (unclear about any cost for re-entry) Thailand gets in effect a significant "border" tax on low-income Cambodian migrants. For the migrants, the fees cost them about 10 days pay assuming Bt300 per day earnings. Considering the impact on the Thai economy if migrants stopped coming into Thailand to work, the processing fees seem an unfair burden on the migrants.

I think that is nonsense. Even the migrants have to pay some fees, the benefit is quite obvious. After registering they are entitled to get the minimum wages. And that is an huge improvement!

[AhFarangJa]

The Labour Ministry forgot a few details in their worker registration graphic, so I have added them in........

1). Employer notifies an officer at a migrant labour registration centre re the number and I.D. of the workers......

And hands over a brown envelope.

2). Employers will be called to bring workers to an employment confirmation, workers will get an employer's letter of demand...

And hand over a brown envelope.

3). Workers bring Identification to a local immigration division to get a stamp, pay 500 Baht.....

And hand over a brown envelope.

4). Workers get a health check....

And hand over a brown envelope. before passing and paying for insurance.

5). Workers bring all documents to register a work permit at the local employment Office....pay fees.....

And hand over a brown envelope.

The migrant workers get their minimum wage, insurance, and a modicum of security and respect,

Local officials get new cars, swimming pools, and vacations abroad........probably in Cambodia.......

[ukrules]

The forgot to mention the new 20,000 Baht charge that the employee must pay under the new law

[chrisinth]

2 hours ago, ukrules said:

The forgot to mention the new 20,000 Baht charge that the employee must pay under the new law

Yep, that is the one that a lot of people aren't reading, the 20,000 baht 'deposit' the employer (not employee) has to front for each worker. For any medium/large size business that employs migrants, that can be a chunk of change tied up.

Edited July 9, 2017 by chrisinth

[ukrules]

2 minutes ago, chrisinth said:

Yep, that is the one that a lot of people aren't reading, the 20,000 baht 'deposit' the employer (not employee) has to front for each worker. For any medium/large size business that employs migrants, that can be a chunk of change tied up.

I believe you will find that the new rules state that it's 20,000 Baht to be paid by the employer AND by the employee, not just the employer.

[chrisinth]

1 minute ago, ukrules said:

I believe you will find that the new rules state that it's 20,000 Baht to be paid by the employer AND by the employee, not just the employer.

If that is right I stand corrected.

 

It doesn't seem logical (yeah, I know!) that a migrant employee would have to front two and a bit monthly wages before they are even paid. The main purpose of them working in Thailand, for the most part anyway, is to make money to send home.

 

IMO, the only way they would get that capital would be by doing a couple of 'mule' runs or some such illegal activity. If that were the case, that would change a lot of statistics compiled by different government agencies..........

 

All hypothetical anyway.

[ukrules]

1 minute ago, chrisinth said:

If that is right I stand corrected.

 

It doesn't seem logical (yeah, I know!) that a migrant employee would have to front two and a bit monthly wages before they are even paid. The main purpose of them working in Thailand, for the most part anyway, is to make money to send home.

 

IMO, the only way they would get that capital would be by doing a couple of 'mule' runs or some such illegal activity. If that were the case, that would change a lot of statistics compiled by different government agencies..........

 

All hypothetical anyway.

 

I just double checked and the reports I read before mentioned 20,000 Baht but that was with regard to 'broker fees' if they choose to pay them instead of having to go back to the home country to be vetted to continue what they're already doing earning much less than this.

 

The whole thing's a joke.

 

 

[Nowisee]

12 hours ago, ukrules said:

 

The whole thing's a joke.

 

 

Kinda like going to the circus...you get to see the clowns, jugglers, puppetry, ventriloquism, tricks and buffoonery.