Mr. Withoon Sukhawathanakul, (Minister Counsellor), Office of Labor Affairs (Riyadh) cooperated with Royal Thai Embassy in Tripoli in assisting Thai workers of CKG company who were struggling to return home after completion of the contract during 11-21 January 2010. Mr. Withoon said that there were 119 Thai workers — working at 3 sites of the reservoir Tank 4 – waiting to be sent home after the completion of the contract. At the site of Ensarah zone, 28 Thai and 250 foreign workers went on strike on 12 January 2010 due to being in arrears of wages and overtime-pay for over 3 months. The other site is Zep Haase city where 6 Thai workers complained to the employer to expedite the tracking of visa application in order to have the visa to return home and back to work in Libya. In conclusion, the summary of assisting Thai workers is as following:
1. To assist Thai workers of CKG.
1.1 Negotiations with the employer, Mr. Withoon Sukhawathanakul cooperated with the Royal Thai Embassy in negotiations with CKG managing director. As a result, the employer agreed to repatriate all Thai workers by firstly returning 119 Thai workers of the reservoir. The company would take care of visa application and fees for workers but at the time were not able to handle the tickets and fares. This was because of the lack of financial liquidity of the company. Workers were asked to advance the payment. Hence, workers have requested assistance from the Embassy by borrowing from the Thai overseas distress assistance budget. The Embassy has, then, notified the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to transfer the budget which has already been deposited into the Embassy’s account. In addition, the employers expected that departure visa application will be completed by 21 January 2010.
1.2 Negotiations with the Thai employees. Since Thai worker in the reservoir site, which has as many as 119 people, are suffering and are not satisfied the employer. The works has, therefore, gathered at the Embassy to follow up the issues. Mr. Withoon and the Embassy explained the progress of the Thai government actions. Also, Mr. Withoon tried to make the spirit of the Thai employees cheerful by giving sincere speech to reduce the stress of the situation. Consequently, Thai workers understood and followed the suggestion to wait for further returning home process.
The other negotiation with Thai employees was at the site of Ensarah zone, where Thai employees went on strike. Although the other foreign workers had all agreed with the employer and were back to work as normal on 17 January 2010, Thai workers still refused to return to work. This was because they feared that they would not be remunerated and that they still wished to return to Thailand. Thus, Mr. Withoon tried so hard in negotiating the labour back to work that 15 Thai workers agreed to start working as usual on 18 January 2010. The other 13 refused to go back to work since they had already left work since December. Later, the said workers sought help to return home from the Royal Thai Embassy. Mr. Withoon and the Embassy then acknowledged the complaints and notified the employer to repatriate these workers right after those working at the reservoir site. As a result, the workers were satisfied; hence, they returned to the working camp to wait for the repatriation. Unfortunately, some workers who had stopped working started to develop paranoia and hallucinations. This led to the speeding up of the repatriation process of the affected people.
2. Meeting up with other Thai workers including 10 Thai workers of the ANC — a company which deals with the artificial river construction projects in Lee County. The workers came to the Royal Thai Embassy for a meeting on weekends, asking for legal advice and workers’ right in Libya. Mr. Withoon and the Embassy gave a warm welcome and gave advice and information until the workers were satisfied. The workers stated that Mr. Withoon and the Embassy had already visited them at the working camp during past December.
3. Official visit to Thailand—Mr. Withoon coordinated with Ambassador and administrators of MOL in making an appointment for Minister of Labour of Libia’s official visit to Thailand and singing MOU on labour with Thailand. Minister of Labour of Libia will paid a visit to Thailand in this mid February 2010.
