Padermchai rejects wage compo request

Employers must bear pay hike costs alone

Published: 5 Jan 2013 at 02.20
Online news:

The government has ruled out setting up a 50-billion-baht fund to help businesses cope with the recent minimum wage hike.

Labour Minister Padermchai Sasomsap said Friday the government had rejected a request from the private sector to set up the compensation fund using public money.Mr Padermchai made the comments yesterday after meeting Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Kittiratt Na-Ranong at Government House.The daily minimum wage was increased to 300 baht nationwide on Tuesday. The policy has been in place in seven pilot provinces, including Bangkok, since April last year. Labour Minister Padermchai Sasomsap (Photo by Pattanapong Hirunard) The government still wants at least three months to assess the consequences of the nationwide policy, at which point it will reconsider measures to help businesses, Mr Padermchai said.The joint committee of the Federation of Thai Industries, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Thai Bankers' Association had proposed the compensation fund to help ease the impacts of the wage hike. The committee argued that small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) would be particularly hard-hit by higher labour costs, and needed government help.The fund was one of 27 measures which the committee proposed to help ease the wage rise burden.Mr Padermchai said the...

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ricefield
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Discussion 27 : 06 Jan 2013 at 02.3427
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D 25 - So what, the rich are rich and the poor remain poor regardless of year. It's not going to change any time soon it's been like that since i was a kid. The gap however is widening between the richest and the poorest and that's of major concern for a number of reasons.
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sanam-bin
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Discussion 26 : 06 Jan 2013 at 02.0726
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The minimum wage is raised to 300 baht. Which is what... the cost of two whiskeys in a go-go bar ? That's appalling . If you want to have a strong economy, pay people more. They will spend more and stimulate the economy.
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howell
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Discussion 25 : 05 Jan 2013 at 23.1425
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@rice. The most recent Gini figures are from 2011 and not an indication of Thaksin/PTP policies.
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ricefield
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Discussion 24 : 05 Jan 2013 at 22.3024
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D 21 - Farmers are not exempt from this but the majority of rice farmers work small plots and don't hire workers as they are family run businesses. I've owned numerous businesses throughout my lifetime and I can say one thing, "I've always paid my workers more than minimum wage". Probably no one on this board has less than 500 bt in their wallet at any given time and very likely way more. It's hard to equate to someone making 300 Bt/Day when you spend half than that in Starbucks on the way to work every morning.
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ricefield
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Discussion 23 : 05 Jan 2013 at 22.2123
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D 20 - Just used Mercedes as an example. If you are leveraged to the hilt it's not the low payed workers that are the problem but the business owners who don't have a viable business or emergency plan or proper financing. It's hard to flaunt your wealth on 300 bt a day so you must be talking about the owners who want to look Hi-So. A broke leveraged business owner shouldn't constantly be looking to the government for a handout so they can get back to business as usual until their business plan fails them the next time.
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ricefield
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Discussion 22 : 05 Jan 2013 at 22.0222
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D9 - Acording to the World Bank, "the Gini coefficient rose from 0.485 to 0.536; the ratio of income received by the richest fifth of the population to that received by the poorest fifth increased from 12 to 15; and, the relative income share of the richest tenth of the population to that of the poorest tenth rose from about 21 to 28." Possibly it's you who needs to get out more.
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golf
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Discussion 21 : 05 Jan 2013 at 21.3921
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D9 Ricefield -
If you would own a ricefield and suddenly you have to pay each of your workers a 300 baht minimum wage per day(even if they have free accommodation and hospitality) - you will soon have to dismiss some of your workers and soon - because you cannot handle the work - there will be no ricefields anymore. Is that what Thailand needs?
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bikeme
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Discussion 20 : 05 Jan 2013 at 17.0420
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D9 Ricefield - assuming that everyone who drives a Mercedes is rich is misguided. In Thailand where status IS everything, folks build houses that are way too big for their needs and buy cars way beyond their means to look high class ... but they are broke. Don't let the car fool you, sure some business owners are rich, but a much greater majority are leveraged to the hilt, just like the rest of the world.
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ThaiBoy
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Discussion 19 : 05 Jan 2013 at 16.5619
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What about the labors who do nothing, just pass the time during work hours? Will they also get 300 bhat? If the government wants to support the citizens, then they should support everyone, why only labor class? May be because they are more, which means more votes; I guess. This is not fair for factory owners.
Reducing government electricity, water and petrol prices can help almost everyone or many.
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flooding
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Discussion 18 : 05 Jan 2013 at 15.1218
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Wait till all garment factories close down, disk drive and electronics industry close down due to technological changes and then we will see where the labour situation stands.
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Padermchai rejects wage compo request | Bangkok Post: business