Employers seek to register foreign workers

By The Nation, Jun 30, 2017

THE JOINT Standing Committee on Commerce, Industry and Banking (JSCCIB) will soon ask the government to hold the third round to register nearly 3 million illegal foreign workers in the country, said Thai Frozen Foods Association president Poj Aramwattananont.

Many employers had not registered workers in the first and second rounds as they did not believe that they would be subjected to harsh punishment, Poj said, adding that now employers were facing a tougher government policy after the Decree on the Management of Foreign Workers Act 2017 came into effect on June 23.

“As this new law came into effect almost immediately, many couldn’t adjust so the JSCCIB wanted the government to grant them some time and then allow a new round at convenient and clear service points,” he said.

The idea stemmed from a JSCCIB meeting yesterday, which also discussed the current legal requirement for employers to place a Bt20,000 deposit for each foreign worker hired.

Poj said JSCCIB members thought the requirement was too strict and might adversely affect small and medium enterprises as well as the service, tourism, restaurant, agriculture and construction sectors.

He added that the new decree would not affect large-scale business operators such as those in the fisheries industry that almost exclusively hired foreign workers because they had already been regulated in the government’s bid to curb illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and human trafficking.

The fisheries industry reportedly needed an additional 70,000 workers and was willing to abide by new regulations to protect the workers, he added.

Meanwhile, an academic specialising in labour issues has questioned the necessity of issuing the new decree. Bundit Thanachaisetthawut of the Arom Phong Pha-ngan Foundation said that a formal decree allowed the government to promulgate or amend a law without first seeking public comment, as is otherwise required. He also noted that employers had expressed concern that hefty fines of Bt400,000 to Bt800,000 for employing illegal foreign workers could result in corruption as officials would seek bribes.

Box:

The decree on the Management of Foreign Workers Act 2017

– Merges two existing laws – the Working of Aliens Act 2008 and the Royal Decree on the Placement of Aliens for Work with Employers in Thailand 2016.

– Prescribes harsher punishments against employers violating law including:

1) those hiring an undocumented foreign worker;

2) those hiring a foreign employee who has no work permit or is working in one of 39 professions reserved for Thais;

3) those hiring a foreign worker who is registered as an employee of another entity

– The fines imposed against the law violators are hefty: an employer with 10 undocumented foreign workers will be fined Bt4 million to Bt8 million, at a rate of Bt400,000-Bt800,000 per worker.