Jobs in Israel scheme under investigation
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A deputy Department of Employment directorgeneral has been under investigation for launching - while his superior was away - an urgent employment scheme to seek Thai workers for jobs in Israel.
A Labour Ministry committee has been set up to find out whether Sumeth Mahosot benefited himself or anyone by issuing a request for a large number of Thai workers to fill jobs in Israel in February, said permanent secretary Somkiat Chayasriwong. Directorgeneral Prawit Khiangphol was travelling overseas at the time.
The DoE is now launching a job search for 1,000 Thai workers through a governmenttogovernment contract which would require much lower fees for successful applicants,Prawit said yesterday. There are 6,596 workers applying for Israelbased positions.
Three job placement firms based in Udon Thani had been under investigation, for demanding fees as high as Bt200,000, he said, adding that one has had its licence suspended while a probe on the two other is underway.
Under the DoEheld scheme, the fee would be no more than Bt70,000 and the first 200 successful applicants would be leaving soon for Israel, said deputy permanent secretary Songsri Bussaba.
The scheme had been supervised by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and Songsri reminded another applicants on a waiting list to leave their mobile phones open. IOM officials in Thailand will call others on the list if the selected ones could not be contacted after two days.
There were 6,338 Thai workers accepted for jobs in Israel in 2009, another 8,136 workers in 2010 and 9,333 last year. Around 25,000 Thai workers are employed in Israel and the total remuneration sent to Thailand was around Bt4 billion last year.
In a jobpromotion campaign in Udon Thani yesterday, Labour Minister Phadermchai Sasomsap led a team of ministry officials to meet with locals and the applicants at a university campus. He said the cheaper fees under the scheme would include Bt39,000 in air tickets, and vowed to stop job placement firms from scamming Thai workers.
Phadermchai said a crackdown on cheating firms would be expanded to Khon Kaen, Nong Bua Lamphu, Nong Khai and Surin.
Regulations on fees allowed to be collected from applicants would be soon amended, said Sanga Sanguanwong, a personal secretary to Phadermchai.
The new regulations would require the firms to specify clearly how much would be paid for what expenses while criteria in other related laws would be clarified to prevent ministry officials using favouritism to benefit certain firms or applicants, Sanga added.
