Page 357 - สถานการณ์การละเมิดสิทธิแรงงานและบทเรียนหกปีของคณะอนุกรรมการสิทธิแรงงานในคณะกรรมการสิทธิมนุษยชนแห่งชาติ (กสม.)

Migrant workers – this group of workers were the most violated victims in terms of labor rights
granted by law and being abused. They received no basic rights as stated in Labor Protection Act, B.E.
2541, no coverage of social security and had to subscribe their own health insurance, no access to
workmen compensation fund, no freedom of be union founder members or officials though they might
submit list of demand to their employer as provided in Labor Relations Act, B.E. 2518 but their
employment contract would be terminated simply and returned to their country of origin in no time.
These workers were employed with short term contract of not exceeding one year period
according to the cabinet resolution and they were employed in the complex sub-contracting business
which was far from law enforcement to take the first layer of contractor or sub-contractor responsible for
legal breaching. They are in the production branches which were least covered not covered at all by labor
protection laws such as work in agricultural, marine fishery, and household sectors.
State agencies responsible for security issues basically see these group of workers as a threat and
being sensitive to national stability, therefore the government strictly introduced control measures by
rounding them up then deport them to their home countries, for examples, the Provincial Announcements
in Phuket, Ranong, Rayong, and Phang-nga confirm this theory. There are rules to curb common
behaviors of these workers, such as prohibit them to possess mobile phones, no assembly of more than
five persons, and impose curfew from 8.00 pm. This group of workers are obviously under extreme
discrimination.
Thai workers who are employed overseas – this group of workers is seen as a debt ridden
people because their expenses and service charge are very high. Besides, a lot of them were lured to work
without knowledge on domestic laws in the respective country. Some employers usually changed working
conditions and remuneration orders which workers had no choice and were forced to accept the new and
unjustified conditions. They were forced to work hard and exploited. Their living condition was poor and
fell as well into complete total lot labor contract system.
There is no Thai state agency with full responsibility concerning problems under the following
functions:
- Examine cases for fact findings.
- Receive complaint cases and find immediate solution for each case.
In the case of having conflict or job performance problem and caused workers fail to receive
wages, this would affect their families in Thailand and the government still had no clear-cut policy in
giving assistance to those workers.
The study found that employees in state run organizations were mostly not under the labor
protection laws enforcement except social security fund. Monthly salary of temporary workers were
under short term employment of one year period and were discriminated in employment contract. They
had no right in forming a union and no law to protect their basic rights or endorse the right of collective
negotiation in particular, and job security was a far cry for them.
Fringe benefits are few and in line with regulations applied by each work unit, no common standard,
what seen with differences were worse than standard comparing to what were provided in labor laws.
As for workers in state enterprises, they got direct effect from state policy in privatization,
reorganize them as public organization and would be excluded from labor law enforcement. ‘Turn-key’
employment in state enterprise has been expanding rapidly and threatens job security of public employees
as a whole. There were discrimination on budget allocation, better support was given to higher profit state
enterprises and ignored problems in others which caused some of them being closed.
Forming a state enterprise union always brought employees into troubles, they could not exercise
their basic rights to enjoy legal protection and just.
Regarding workers in formal sector, the study found that there was no legal binding in
employment contract, such conduct therefore was not enforceable with labor law at all. Some might have
access to Social Security Act if the contribution they paid was sufficient to covered what required by law,

และบทเรียนหกปีของคณะอนุกรรมการสิทธิแรงงาน ๓๕๗

Master 2 anu .indd 357 7/28/08 9:26:34 PM