Officials to check on wage hike abuse

To prepare for D-day for payment of the Bt300 minimum daily wage on April 1 in seven provinces, labour relations officials will visit workplaces to make sure employers comply with the hike. 

Employees already earning higher than Bt300 will neither demand more nor stage wage protests, Department of Labour Protection and Welfare (DLPW) director-general Arthit Issamo said yesterday.

During visits to workplaces, DLPW officials will make sure employers have not secretly or openly included other welfare conditions, in monetary value, in the daily wage to absorb their costs, he said.

Arthit also called on employees to improve their performances or increase their skills to make employers feel the hike was worthwhile. He said that lay-offs in workplaces where employers could not afford the hikes would not be in large numbers, as the total earning less than Bt300 across the country was not large. He did not offer a figure.

In Samut Sakhon, one of the seven provinces, officials said the local lay-off situation was not worrying. The Central Administrative Court had not issued injunctions lodged by employers complaining about higher costs and seeking to challenge government policy on the Bt300 minimum pay out.

The chief of the provincial labour office, Arunee Jitpatima, said an ongoing survey of improvements in skills resulting from government-funded career training would be completed soon, and should help to better evaluate the local labour situation.

An owner of a freezer company, Somphong Thuanrungroj, said he’d had to lay off workers from his force of 200 by nearly half because he could not afford to pay the higher wage. He said the local fishery industry might face problems when immigrant workers received their Bt300 and became more selective in their work, giving up difficult and unpleasant tasks such as working on fishing trawler crews.

More fierce competition is anticipated in the fishery industry after increased foreign investment in this sector, he added.

The chairman of well-known Smiling Fish canned sardines and seafoods, Salil Tothabthiang, said increase in price of Pum Pui products was possible following more than 40 per cent of total daily wage paid to his workers, from currently Bt175 to Bt244 after April 1.

He said all raw materials relating to canned fish production would be more expensive. Smiling Fish has prepared for the higher cost and would boost productivity to make up for the higher cost. Salil said he was more worried about immigrant workers, either his employees or workers at most workplaces across the country, turning to other jobs after they get paid Bt300.