Skip to main content

Advertisement

Advertisement

Exodus of illegal foreign workers leave Thai eateries in a stew

BANGKOK — A new labour law has triggered an exodus of 250,000 foreign workers, creating a labour shortage that has forced scores of restaurants to shut, and many travel and bus companies to stop hiring illegal workers.

A restaurant in Bangkok. A new labour law has triggered an exodus of  foreign workers, creating a labour shortage that has forced many eateries to close.  Photo: Bloomberg

A restaurant in Bangkok. A new labour law has triggered an exodus of foreign workers, creating a labour shortage that has forced many eateries to close. Photo: Bloomberg

Follow TODAY on WhatsApp

BANGKOK — A new labour law has triggered an exodus of 250,000 foreign workers, creating a labour shortage that has forced scores of restaurants to shut, and many travel and bus companies to stop hiring illegal workers.

The new law was implemented on June 23 and the junta government has given business operators 120 days to certify or re-certify their foreign workers’ permissions and job titles.

Business owners who do not comply will be fined 400,000 baht (S$16,300) per illegal worker. Migrant workers who do not have work permits can be fined up to US$3,000 (S$4,100) — an astronomical sum for most workers. Their wages can be as low as US$3 a day for a workday of 16 hours over seven days a week.

According to Thai Restaurant Association (TRA) president Taniwan Koonmongkol, more than 250,000 illegal workers have returned to their home countries since the act was implemented. The TRA estimates that there are some three million registered foreign workers in Thailand, and they take jobs that are shunned by Thais. Most of them work in the manufacturing, fishing and farming sectors.

The labour shortage has forced small food shops and food carts to close, said Mrs Taniwan. Small shops still in operation have suffered a 30 per cent drop in sales on average. Big food chains and financially robust companies, however, have not been affected.

This has caused concerns in the food industry, which contributes 1.1 trillion baht to the economy. Tourist consumption accounts for 600 billion baht. Small and medium-sized enterprises are particularly concerned that this will erode their competitiveness even further. Not only do they rely very heavily on the migrant workforce to keep their businesses operating, the fines are too massive for them.

Millions of illegal workers, however, are still in the country, since their grace periods have yet to expire. Mrs Taniwan said she expects that many foreign workers who have left will return once they realise their grace period is the end of the year.

There are more than 100,000 registered restaurants in Thailand, she said. These restaurants hire about 300,000 foreign workers. Six out of 10 working in these restaurants are from Myanmar, while the rest are from Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia.

In contrast, better-resourced establishments would be unlikely to encounter this unpredictable situation. Higher-end restaurants, hotels and language school are hiring more Filipinos, most of whom have proper work permits.

Another industry that is hard-hit is the transport industry. Many tour companies now lack both legal and illegal foreign workers, said Mr Wasuchet Sophonsatien, president of the Thai Transportation Operators Association.

Another headache complicating the labour issue is the fate of non-registered hotels in Thailand. There are more than 18,000 hotels in Thailand, but only 8,000 of these have operating licences. Over 10,000 hotels with a combined 400,000 rooms are operating illegally, said the Thai Hotels Association (THA).

In Bangkok alone, there are more than 300 illegal hotels in Bangkok, said Mrs Supawan Tanomkieatipume, president of the THA. This includes properties like serviced apartments, guest houses, condominiums, houses and other private properties that provide accommodation for tourists.

Although the THA has provided a list of properties breaching the law to the police since 2014, only 20 illegal hotels had been charged since. Each errant operator was fined between 3,000-10,000 baht. Many have been charged multiple times, but continue to operate under different names.

On the other hand, registered hotels will not be affected much by the crackdown, said Mrs Supawan. This is because they only hire certified workers.

“Registered hotel operators prefer to employ local people. Only 5 per cent of their staff is from overseas, and they all have work permits,” she said.

Non-registered hotels, tourist accommodations and small independent hotels are required to consult with the Interior Ministry’s Department of Provincial Administration — the unit that approves hotel licences, Mrs Supawan said.

The TRA suggested that in the long term, business owners, especially restaurants, can avoid the foreign labour programme by issuing work permits, and group medical insurance to their staff.

“Many illegal immigrants will return in search of higher wages in Thailand. The number of registered workers will also increase in step,” Mrs Taniwan of TRA said.

Restaurants would do well to keep their margins high, especially in the tourist sector. Higher profit promotes higher wages, and lower turnover rates. Officials from both Thailand and Myanmar have met to discuss cooperation on the labour problem.

Media reports say that the latest move by the Thai authorities is one in a series of ad hoc and short-lived measures aimed at registering migrant workers and cracking down on illegal smuggling routes. Business disruption aside for small and medium enterprises, the flurry of crackdown has made migrant workers more vulnerable to exploitation by human traffickers and agents that they entrust their lives to in order to ensure a safe passage home.

People-smuggling across the Thai-Myanmar border has been on the rise despite the Thai government’s efforts to control it. The United States said recently that Thailand did not meet the minimum standards to end human trafficking, much to the dismay of the Thai government. AGENCIES

Read more of the latest in

Advertisement

Advertisement

Stay in the know. Anytime. Anywhere.

Subscribe to get daily news updates, insights and must reads delivered straight to your inbox.

By clicking subscribe, I agree for my personal data to be used to send me TODAY newsletters, promotional offers and for research and analysis.