The Ministry of Labour’s Inspector-General and spokesperson Mr. Ananchai Uthaipatanacheep explained that the Foreign Workers Employment Management Royal Decree B.E. 2560 was a combination of 2 legislations that are the Working of Alien Act B.E. 2551 and the Foreign Worker under Thai Employment Royal Decree B.E. 2559. Both legislation have gaps which has resulted in ineffective services, for example, the legislation does not support workers who have left employers without notice. Existing legislation did not specify necessity for employers to notify officials, therefore the new enactment outlines this more explicitly. The other issue was the collection of fees from recruitment agencies as a security deposit for employees when leaving or being terminated from a company. Complexities were found when workers change employers causing great financial losses, therefore the legislation would need to cover cases of changing employers too. Furthermore, the new enactment has a dedicated committee for foreign worker management, where it is responsible for setting strategies, policies and planning to standardize foreign worker management.
Mr. Ananchai said that government has hope that the royal decree will manage foreign workers and prevent any illegal activity and human trafficking, as compliance with regulations and MOU channels would prove more cost effective and efficient for employers. He explained that employers intending to bring in migrant workers could contact all provincial employment offices or call the 1694 hotline.
Although the new legislation is enforced, working teams will continue to conduct inspections. From October 2016 to May 2017, the task force inspected a total of 58,373 companies with a total of 385,827 migrant workers. From this, 1,460 companies and 12,358 migrant workers, equating to 3 percent of the overall population, were found in violation of the regulations.
——————————————-
Spokesperson and Publication Sub-Division/
Bureau of Public Relations /
Chaninthorn Phettab – News/
Kantipon Kusmit – Photos/
Department of Employment – Information/
27 June 2017
