On October 12, 2022, the Labour Minister, Mr. Suchart Chomklin assigned Assistant to the Labour Minister, Mr. Surachai Chaitrakulthong, the Department of Employment’s Director-General, Mr. Pairoj Chotikasatien, and the Department of Labour Protection and Welfare’s Director-General, Mr. Niyom Songkaew, were representatives in receiving a letter from Mr. Teerasak Phakdinopparat, a native of Udon Thani province, who led 22 berry-picking workers in Finland and 27 in Sweden, for a total of 49 people, to submit a letter to the Labour Minister to call on the Ministry of Labour to help in the case of unfair wages and welfare. On this issue, the Labour Minister, Mr. Suchart Chomklin, cares about all Thai workers. Today, the workers filed claims on three issues: 1) To use the fund helping job seekers to work abroad, with 30,000 Baht each. 2) The Department of Employment, as a unit that deploys workers to work abroad, should supervise companies to ensure workers are not exploited, and to control the number of workers deployed, as too many workers can cause them to have less income. 3) Follow up on wages accrued from the company, Arctic. For the first point, the Department of Employment cannot use funds to help job seekers to work abroad to pay the workers because it violates the fund’s objectives. However, in delivering workers to Finland, the coordinating company in Thailand must place a 30,240 Baht income guarantee for each Thai worker by placing a bank guarantee with the BAAC. This money can be used to pay the workers whose income is less than the amount of income guaranteed. On the second point that the company has too many workers deployed, there are meetings among three parties: the destination country, the Department of Employment, and the Department of Consular Affairs. This year, the country of origin asked Thailand to send more workers, as this year were no workers from Ukraine to collect wild fruits. On the third point on accrued wages, the embassy in Finland is currently following up on this, and the Department of Employment is following up with the Thai liaison company that sends workers abroad.
The Department of Employment’s Director-General, Mr. Pairoj Chotikasatien, divided the workers into groups to ask questions. For the workers who worked in Finland, there has been a negotiation with the Thai representative, and it was agreed that the Department of Employment would expedite the process of helping to use the money that the company has placed as a guarantee at the BAAC to compensate each worker, according to the factual evidence. The money will be transferred into the accounts within the next week.
For workers who worked in Sweden, the Swedish labour unions have provided an income guarantee for each worker of 24,000 Krona, which is over 80,000 Thai Baht. At the same time, any Thai workers who have not received justice in terms of income, welfare, and well-being, can file a complaint at the Provincial Labour Protection and Welfare Office in the province where they live.
Mr. Teerasak Phakdinopparat, a native of Udon Thani province, the representative of the berry-picking workers who submitted the letter, said that today, they understood and are satisfied with the various issues explained by the Assistant to the Labour Minister in terms of income guarantee, delivery quotas and accrued wages. Furthermore, the Department of Employment’s Director-General has promised to expedite the use of the money the company has placed as collateral for income at the BAAC to pay the workers within the next week. He thanked the Ministry of Labour for being truly reliable for the workers.
++++++++++++++++++
Division of Public Relations
12 October 2022
