Hundreds dismissed due to wage hike

[buksida]

Since the government's blanket enforcement of the 300-baht daily minimum wage took effect nationwide on Jan 1, 275 workers had been sacked in the first four days of the year, Labour Minister Padermchai Sasomsap said on Tuesday.

According to the Department of Labour Protection and Welfare, four factories had been hard hit by the government's wage policy and had dismissed a total of 275 workers between Jan 1 and 4.

"Two more factories will likely sack another 480 workers soon and there are five other factories that appear to have liquidity problems and the contracts of 999 workers there will expire," Mr Padermchai said.

Finance permanent secretary Areepong Bhucha-oom confirmed the Ministry of Finance will propose five measures to ease the impact of the new 300 baht daily minimum wage on small- and medium-sized businesses to the cabinet meeting today.

Mr Padermchai said last week the first proposal was to reduce official fees collected from small- and medium-sized hotels by 50% for three years. The fee currently stands at 80 baht per occupied room.

The second involves organising workshops to develop the skills of workers in educational institutions and companies.

The other proposals include increasing the payment for organising government-sponsored seminars, so that private firms involved would get more revenue, organising events to sell consumer products at cheap prices, and tax reductions for SMEs, down from 3% to 2%.

Mr Areepong said on Monday that the Finance Ministry will ask the cabinet to consider raising the income tax exemption limit from 150,000 baht to 300,000 baht for small- and medium-enterprises with annual revenue below 50 million baht.

Source: BKK Post

[sargeant]

This is exactely why i did not support TRT PPP or Phua Thais populist economic policies/rhetoric.
I actually believe the hidden job losses are still down the road when factories and companies have to raise the prices of their products which will lead to less orders and subsequently jobs will go.

It is however a direct result of years and years/ decades and decades when the ruling parties have just taken care of the rich and used the populace as slave labour.

It had to change (which i still support strongly) and TRT did that but what any democracy needs is both a strong ruling party AND a strong opposition
It is the lack of a strong opposition and by that i mean they must be capable of winning an election and at present i dont see that, which worries me more than anything.

whilst it is hardly surprising that years and decades of being down trodden and ignored they would go for shortsighted policies like this one, it is still a mistake and will NOT actually help the poor in the long term.
Only investment and bringing good jobs and better education will do that
The opposition at present should now start looking at policies that will increase the standard of living for the majority otherwise this country will go down a slow but sure U bend because they sure as hell will not get voted back in with their stick with the rich programme.
Whilst i do not support it i do understand it and hope it will be a wake up call to the rich because they will loose out as well.

[Takiap]

Personally I think a lot of Thais are going to suffer because of this wage hike, but then again, if businesses are only able to stay in business thanks to cheap labour, maybe they need to close shop. It's a very tricky situation, and no matter what remedy they opt for, there will be people who suffer, sometime employees, and sometimes employers. The way things are right now, I don't think people have much incentive to find a job in Thailand. If I was a Thai national, I would rather take my chances and work for myself. There are countless Thais doing this and making far more than 300 baht a day. My FIL works 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, and that for 300 baht a day. He could be selling pancakes down the road each evening for a few hours and make more money. If I had the same level of freedom the Thais have, I would be making far more than 300 baht a day. All it takes is a bit of creativity and some determination. Anyway,

[StevePIraq]

The impact of this ill conceived idea is that Thais are being made redundant as businesses start to look at ways of reducing overheads.

A friend of mine has just resigned from his job as the boss had to implement the 300Baht per day ruling however to mitigate the cost increase the boss was forcing staff to work longer hours, the Thai Labor law states 8 hours per day to a maximum of 48 hours per week, my friend was being compelled to work from 8am to 11pm so this is well in excess of the law.

The big problem is most Thais do not even know their rights and few if any will speak up against the boss, with my friend he had the balls to question the boss and no others did so the boss came down heavy on my friend so he told the boss to stuff it, in Thai of course with a Wai at the end.

From what my friend has said there are no government agencies who inspect and audit companies and enforce workers rights, unions are only involved in large scale industrial operations.

http://www.business-in-asia.com/thai_labor_law.htm

[buksida]

We'll be seeing a lot more of this too ...

Thai Factories to Move to Low-wage Burma
Manufacturers based in southern Thailand’s Ranong Province are planning to shift their operations to neighboring Burma following an increase in Thailand’s minimum wage that came into effect on Jan. 1, according to the Thai News Agency. On Sunday, the Ranong Industries Federation said that its members were seeking to shift to Burma because of shortages of raw materials and high wages in Thailand, where the minimum wage is now 300 baht (around US $10) per day. The Ranong Chamber of Commerce also said that it hopes to set up a free market zone on the borer between the two countries.

http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/24003

[STEVE G]

It seems to be happening elsewhere in Asia: