Ruthless employers using crisis to cut workers, costs: unions

Thai Labour Solidarity Committee president Wilaiwan Saetia

Since Thailand first faced the economic crisis last year, it has been reported that from October 2008 to March 2009, many factories and businesses had folded, causing 133,307 workers to be laid off and another 237,086 workers to quit their jobs - through voluntary resignation or early retirement.

In February, 101,939 were registered to claim the SSO unemployment benefits. The Labour Ministry told the Cabinet meeting on April 29 that 258,425 people had become unemployed due to the economic crisis.

The government and Labour Ministry implemented four measures to help workers. They were: the monitoring of the recession's impact on workers; the "three down, three up" measure - employment reduction, labour mobilisation reduction, living cost reduction, employment increase, vocational option increase and vocational skill increase; and the establishment of a one-stop-service centre to help those unemployed due to the economic crisis.

The last measure comprised various projects such as the Bt2,000 gift cheque, the TonkhlaArcheep vocational training, the kuwikrit raengngan Thai keunthin project (returning Thai workers to their hometowns), and loans to stall job terminations.

The government also reduced workers' and employers' contributions to the SSO Fund by 2 per cent each. They currently contribute 5 per cent - so from July until December they would pay only 3 per cent.

The government believed the various measures, on which they've already spent some Bt20 billion, would ease the impact of the projected unemployment figure of up to 900,000.

However, labour advocates still say the government has tackled the problems in the wrong direction and workers did not benefit as they should have.

Thai Labour Solidarity Committee president Wilaiwan Saetia said the solutions implemented were not in line with the problems of workers suffering from layoffs or unemployment.

From January to April this year, 13,270 workers whose jobs were terminated filed complaints to the committee. The Labour Ministry's database didn't show the problems encountered by the workers and the ministry often reported only the numbers of factories folded and workers laid off or likely to be, she said.

"Many employers used the labour protection law's article 75 which allowed employers to ignore the rules and temporarily close businesses without paying their workers in full, or to order their workers to temporarily stop working on a regular basis.

Some used the opportunity to weed out workers without informing them of the regulations, or to shift to subcontract employment, she said. In many conflicts between businesses and workers, the ministry seemed to side with the employers rather than the workers.

Wilaiwan said the committee had tried to propose more solutions and to tackle such issues. She said the SSO Fund contribution reduction, to be initially implemented for six months, would cause the loss of Bt15,600 million and would affect the fund's future.

She said the government should improve benefits to the SSO subscribers instead of reducing contributions that barely benefited workers but certainly helped employers to reduce expenses.

Sawit Kaewwan, secretary general of the State Enterprise Workers Relations Confederation (SERC), said the government's solutions-especially the Bt2,000 gift cheque - could be effective to a certain degree but the more appropriate solution would be increasing jobs.

He questioned if the government could be able to provide jobs for graduates of the Tonkhla Archeep training program. Giving workers money wouldn't always solve problems, he said, urging the government to provide a mechanism to ensure workers were justly paid and had appropriate welfare - a better longterm solution.

The president of the Eastern Labour Unions said workers in the automotive industry suffered greatly as many companies had let their workers go and it was obvious employers didn't care about the law and state officials could no nothing to punish them.

He cited the case of Michelin Thailand, which deducted workers' payment without consent and terminated the employment of workers including a pregnant woman, to show employers had no fear of the laws.

He said many attempts to solve labour disputes didn't have the participation of real worker representatives.

He said government measures had not materialised, except for the Bt2,000 gift cheque that wasn't distributed effectively; and that the government didn't listen to workers' objections to the SSO Fund contribution reduction.

Prahas Tossaporn, president of the Electronic and Computer Parts Workers Union Federation, whose workplace CKL Electronics laid off 600 workers late in June, said government agencies didn't understand and tackle the root of labour problems because they couldn't catch up with the private sector.

His company claimed the loss of profit and orders as the reason to lay off workers - after the partner company's takeover. But in fact his company took the orders to another subsidiary firm and laid off the workers to cut costs, he said.

"The company closed for three days for restoration after a minor fire incident and then announced the termination of 600 workers. Remaining workers became day staff.

Some who'd worked for 10 years now earned little more than Bt200 per day - losing  about Bt4,000Bt5,000 income per head," he said. The union gathered information against the employer's possible illegal actions to file a complaint to the Labour Protection and Welfare Department, but it was too late, he said.

Although compensation was paid, many workers didn't want to leave their jobs because they were old and had difficulties finding a new job. He said the government's guideline to stall job termination didn't work because many factories in the Bang Pain and Ayutthaya Industrial Estates still used the economic slowdown to reduce the workforce.

Chiang Mai University's Economics lecturer Worawit Charoenlert said that since 2007, political turmoil had affected the economy in which 70 per cent of the Thai GDP is based on exports.

He urged the government to tackle the issue and get true labour participation. About 12 million Thais worked in factories and the current labour law had loopholes.

Although the government invested a lot of money in stimulating projects, only small amounts went to rural areas. He expressed concern that the number of "poor" people would increase, after the previous crisis in 1997 had hiked the number from eight to 12 million.

The National Statistics Office reported that 820,000 people were unemployed in April 2009, compared to April 2008's 550,000 jobless. March 2009 saw 710,000 unemployed.

Most unemployed were from the production sector and those aged 1524 had a higher rate of unemployment as they mostly had Mathayomlevel education and lived in the Northeastern and Central regions.