Business leaders are calling for the restructuring of the country's labour system and its regulations over the next five years to prepare for a possible labour shortage with the onset of an ageing society.
The Employers' Confederation of Thai Trade and Industry (EconThai) is due to submit a five-year plan (2016-20) to the Labour Ministry and expects it to be set as an urgent agenda to help Thailand deal with rapid employment changes.
EconThai vice-chairman Tanit Sorat said the plan would cover improvements to working conditions, better compensation, better access to medical welfare and restructuring of the social welfare system to match changing employment circumstances.
"As we are seeing Asean becoming integrated under the Asean Economic Community, where labour will move freely in the region, we need to have regulations that match this changing society," he said.
He said the government should clarify how it plans to regulate migrant workers at a time when Thailand still has to rely on unskilled migrants to help the economy.
"The government should be more clear on how to deal with this issue, how many migrant workers we need and how can we regulate them appropriately," said Mr Tanit.
The government should also overhaul laws and regulations overseeing labour issues to match changing employment patterns, which cover wide areas of not only the industrial sector but also the services and agriculture sectors.
Mr Tanit said the industrial sector accounted for only about 19% of total employment, while the agriculture and service sectors made up 80%.
"Each sector has different patterns of employment, which need to be treated in different ways. Labourers in the agricultural sector will not accept employment, wages and welfare like those in the industrial sector," he said.
As are result, minimum wages should be differentiated by sector. This would help reduce the problem of labour evacuation to areas such as capital Bangkok, where the minimum wage was set at an unrealistically high level, leaving other provinces to face a labour shortage, Mr Tanit said.
Moreover, Thailand should extend the retirement age of workers from 55 to 60 to help increase the workforce at a time when the country is becoming an ageing society.
After extending people's working lives, Thailand will have to improve its social welfare to cover the longer working period while providing better compensation and retirement rewards to cover lives after retirement, Mr Tanit said.