President of the Fisheries Association of Thailand met with the Labour Minister and Deputy Labour Minister to congratulate them on their new position. They also exchanged ideas and presented various sea fishing workers’ issues to collectively find a solution to the problem.
Labour Minister Mr. Suchart Chomklin welcomed President of the Fisheries Association of Thailand Mr. Kamjon Mongkoltrilak and delegation on the occasion of meeting the Labour Minister and Deputy Labour Minister to congratulate them on their appointment to their new position. The meeting also exchanged ideas and presented various problems among sea fishing workers to collectively find solutions. Deputy Labour Minister Prof. Narumol Pinyosinwat and the Ministry of Labour’s top executives gave a welcoming. The discussion acknowledged issues and proposed ideas for joint solutions to the problem of sea fishers. There were various issues including labour shortages in the sea fishing sector, the extension of the period of operation for foreign workers under Section 83, amendments to the regulations of the Ministry of Labour, such as regulations for the payment of wages to workers due to their lack of equality with other occupations, amending laws allowing all types of sea fishers to add employers instead of changing employers and visa immunity for workers whose visas expire on September 30. They proposed to discuss with the Ministry of Interior to issue ID cards to more than 4,000 Thais wishing to work on a fishing boat but are unable to get into the vessel because they don’t have an ID card. They, therefore, asked the provincial governor to issue a card number 0 so that this group of people can work on a fishing boat and asked the relevant units to recruit 50,000 Thai workers to work in fishing boats through the provincial governor, gather people who want to work on the fishing boat to provide training on knowledge about working on fishing boats and using different types of tools.
Mr. Suchart said that Prime Minister General Prayuth Chan-ocha has entrusted him to resolve labour problems. For the president of the Fisheries Association of Thailand and members’ requests to meet today, in addition to congratulating the Labour Minister on his new appointment, the meeting also jointly discussed the state of problems and proposed ideas for joint solutions to the problem of sea fishers. The discussed covered various issues, including labour shortages in the sea fishing sector. Deputy Prime Minister General Prawit Wongsuwan emphasized the resolution for illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing and human trafficking. They asked each government agency to integrate their work on preventing and solving human trafficking, especially among sea fishing workers, to raise Tier 1 to build confidence in Thai exports. The efforts will drive the country forward, in particular, accelerating the economic recovery after the Covid-19 situation has eased, following the “Unite Thailand and Build a Nation” approach so that all sectors can jointly plan to determine the future of Thailand together.
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Division of Public Relations
26 August 2020
