A majority of Thai workers say their quality of life remain unchanged this year compared to last year and they are satisfied with it, according to a survey conducted by the National Institute for Development Administration, or Nida Poll.
The survey, conducted during April 25-27 on 1,250 workers aged 18 and over of various occupations and education levels throughout the country, focused on quality of life at work.
When asked to score 0-10 on their satisfaction with the quality of life at work this year, the average score was at a rather higher level of 7.41, the pollster said.
Asked to compare their quality of life this year and last year, many said it remained unchanged (42.24%), while 34.08% felt it was better and 23.68% found it was worse.
On the quality of life of Thai workers after the establishment of the Asean Economic Community, most or 39.04% of the respondents said it remained the same with not much change; 28.40% said more Thai workers have been replaced by those from other Asean member countries; 15.76% said Thai workers had been overlooked; 8.80% said Thais had improved themselves in terms of language proficiencies and skills; and 6.08% said more workers had a chance to work in other Asean countries.
Among the things they wanted from the government for better quality of life at work were regular adjustments of the minimum wages in line with the cost of living (50%), better control of employment firms to prevent them from taking advantage of workers (42.08%), law amendments to better protect labour rights and welfare (39.52%), measures to promote skills (34.24%) and solutions to unemployment (32.04%) and to problems involving migrant workers (26.24%).