Tuesday, 19 July 2011 07:00 |
Mr. Somkiat Chayasriwong, Permanent Secretary of MOL jointly listened to the viewpoints of representatives from fishing and seashore fishing-related industries toward the problems of the registration of migrant workers; namely Burma, Lao, and Cambodia, and labour shortage in fishing industries since Thai and foreign workers have refused to work in this sector due to the harsh condition which includes long period of working in the sea and high pressure. Regarding the current solution, employers have to rest on foreign workers by employing these workers both legal and illegal migrant workers
Mr. Mongkol Sukchareounkana, President of Samut Songkhram Double Tugboat Fishery Association presented the problems of using foreign workers in fishing and seashore fishing-related industries that the problems have remained unsolved until present and no matter how often the registration was undertaken, the crux of the problem could not be untangled. In addition, there were many government agencies having responsibilities on this matter; however, he was appreciated with the performance of MOL as it worked closely and paid attention to systematic arrangement of foreign labour, and was well aware of the actual problems. Additionally, there were some critical problems that employers often faced with. Namely, due to the nature of fishery works, workers always had to move and sometimes after registration, these workers had escaped when they got back from the sea. While there was only one time registration a year and therefore, this led to the labour shortage and subsequent problems such as employment of illegal migrant workers, labour bribes. More reflected, even the BOI-promoted enterprises must employ foreign workers and the problem of human trafficking which affected fishing industries and overall country’s economic stand. Therefore, he called on the government to consider the alternative labour replacement which was the key to move forward the business operation consecutively since there was no one willing to act against the law. Mr. Kitti Kosolsakul, president of Trad Fishery Association, added some points regarding the period of registration between 2-3 months which was inadequate for fishing operators as the nature of fishing work routinely went out far from the shoreline and some ships faced with the storms causing them to be unable to register in times. Therefore, he proposed 2 ideas; first, the registration should be undertaken at any time throughout the year and the government would get more payroll tax and reduce employment of illegal migrant workers. Another idea, operators that currently hired illegal migrant workers should be exempt from the penalty in order to reduce labour bribe and illegal patronage and the suppression unit must inspect and seriously compel. No matter how seriously pushed them off, if these workers were willing to work, they will also illegally enter into country. Hence, appropriate means should be carried out to render a lawful track. From: http://www.mol.go.th |