Bt300 wage will be enforced by 2012 end
The Labour Ministry expects to push the daily minimum wage up to Bt300 across the country before the end of next year after a signifiฌcant raise of about 40 per cent appeared likely to take effect on January 1.
"It's the government policy," permanent secretary Somkiat Chayasriwong said yesterday.
"If necessary, the issue may have to be resolved via a vote by the tripartite Central Wage Committee," he said.
The Central Wage Committee, with representatives from employers, employees and the government, has always agreed on hikes in the daily minimum wage for each province through discussions. Voting has never been used before.
During its winning election campaign, the Pheu Thai Party promised to raise the daily minimum wage to Bt300. Now, workers and labourrights organisations are pressing hard on the government to honour its election comฌmitments, while many employers have raised howls of complaints.
However, Somkiat was now quite optimistic after the Board of Trade acquiesced to a 40percent hike across the country
"We just had the discussion on Monday," Somkiat said.
Currently, the daily minimum wage ranges from Bt159Bt221. Phuket has the highest at Bt221, while Phayao has the lowest.
The ministry is trying to complete by next month the preparaฌtions for the big hike in the daily minimum wage. Among the many measures to ease the pain on entrepreneurs is a proposal to lower the corporate income tax from 30 per cent to just 23 per cent.
"We will communicate with entrepreneurs to create better understanding," he said.
The ministry also plans to provide skilldevelopment training for workers to ensure that they deserved the Bt300 wage.
Chatchai Boonrat, vice president of the Board of Trade, said he believes that the Central Wage Committee could force employers to accept the Bt300 wage by law.
"If the government is going to push for such a raise, it should have effective remedies in place for suffering employers," he said.
The Bt300 wage might not be fair to skilled workers with years of experience, who would be earning the same rate as new workers with just days of training, he said.
Some employers might take advantage of this opportunity to seek government help even though the higher wages did not hurt their business, he added.
Somkiat said authorities would screen employers asking for help.
