Labour ministry to help unpaid Thai berry pickers in Sweden
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Employment Department would provide assistance to the 240 Thais who did not get paid according to the contract for berry-picking works in Sweden to sue their employers.
Its director general Prawit Kiangpol said the Thai workers would take legal action against their employers at the Central Labour Court.
They would seek court order for the employer to pay the overdue payments.
The workers had filed complaints to the Labour Ministry, claiming they didn't get full payment as said in the working contract.
A total of 6,100 Thai workers had got berry-picking works in Sweden for two months via employment agencies. However 240 of them did not get full payment, they staged protests and fled the camp.
The case would be brought to the Central Labour Court because the employers insisted they would pay the overdue payments based on the amount of berries picked - which wasn't equivalent to the income guaranteed in the contract of at least Bt85,000 a month.
Prawit affirmed the department would be on the workers' side in the court battle.
"As measures to prevent such problems, the department will consult with Swedish and Finland governments about how many workers they needed for berry picking. They would be urged to issue the visas according to the numbers.
