The ongoing labour row at Mitsubishi Electric Consumer Products Thailand that affects members of the company's labour union shows the ugliness of the economic system with the imbalance of power between employers and employees.
The labour union staged a protest two days after Christmas, following several failed attempts to settle the dispute.
On Sept 7, last year, the union which represents about 1,800 workers in the company's air-conditioning manufacturing section, handed a list of demands to the firm's management including a 7.5% pay rise, an eight-month bonus and better welfare.
Paritta Wangkiat is a reporter, Bangkok Post.
It's actually part of the annual bargaining process that looks for points to agree on by the two parties ahead of the 2018 pay and welfare adjustments.
However, the company introduced new employment policies, including using fixed-rate increases instead of percentage hikes that had been the norm over past years. Fixed-rate increases will be topped up by performance-based incentives. The company estimates each worker can get a monthly wage boost of between 400 and 4,000 baht.
The company also proposed an adjustment of shift work from two to three shifts a day. It planned a deduction from workers' monthly pay cheques to fund the labour union. The management claimed that these policies, scheduled to take effect in April this year will benefit workers and the company's development and future growth.
Yet, many workers and the labour union do not agree. They questioned the fairness of this "performance-based evaluation". Many workers wanted to maintain percentage increases which benefit them, while they alleged the adjustment of shifts was just a tactic to cut back on overtime payments. The mandatory contribution to the labour union might also discourage workers from joining the union and weaken its power.
As both parties failed to reach an agreement, the negotiations dragged on for almost four months.
On Dec 29, the company announced the work suspension of 1,800 labour union members. It means they are still employees but not allowed to work or recive pay and benefits from the firm until the dispute is settled.
According to the Labour Relations Act, the company has the power to suspend jobs indefinitely under these circumstances. This basically forces some embattled workers to give up their protests and resume work. For many, having jobs with unsatisfactory pay and welfare is better than having no work at all.
In another similar case in 2013, the labour union of General Motors Thailand called a strike after management launched a new work shift policy. The company then imposed a work suspension in the midst of this unsettled dispute.
Many members of the labour union chose to resume working while nine leaders were sued for trespassing on the company's property during the strike. In mid-2017, the Rayong Supreme Court handed the union leaders two-month suspended jail sentences and 5,000-baht fines.
The state may claim that our labour law is fair to all relevant parties. But it's not. Workers suffer a disadvantage in the bargaining game.
There are ways for management to apply the "divide and rule" principle, to weaken the workers. Politics in the workplace sees the management handing rewards to "good employees". Things get worse as state authorities tend to fail when intervening in disputes and maintaining a balance in bargaining power.
The worst part is the attitude of the state that favours investors, ignoring labour rights. Authorities and investors seem to forget that better welfare will strengthen the labour force which, in return, will increase productivity and bolster the nation's competitiveness.
More often than not, the government acts to protect investors, giving them privileges, tax cuts and subsidies, so as to attract private investment.
But it always hesitates to respond to workers' calls, particularly for fair wages.
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha once discouraged workers from demanding higher wages, which he said might drive investors out of Thailand to other countries with cheaper labour.
That point is debatable.
In 2012 when the Yingluck Shinawatra raised the minimum wage to 300 baht, inflows of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) still climbed from 401 billion baht in the same year to 495 billion baht in 2013, according to the Bank of Thailand. Then FDI plummeted to 161 billion baht in 2014 when the country was trapped in its political conflict that ended with the military coup.
A study by the Thailand Future Foundation shows that, two years after the 300-baht minimum wage policy was launched nationwide in 2013, the average inflation rate had risen by only 0.4% with the unemployment rate falling by 0.4%.
This contradicted what the critics had predicted. They said drastic minimum wage rises would cause severe inflation by increasing prices and would boost the unemployment rate because employers "could not afford the increased wages".
But it should be noted that the reason a number of businesses closed down was mainly because of a lack of ability to adapt, especially labour-intensive businesses.
Some companies oppose wage increases, saying that higher wages will hurt their operations even though they make higher profits each year. Most of the time, CEOs earn millions of baht in terms of monthly salaries plus extensive bonuses and incentives. The state sides with these companies as they are seen as a mechanism to push GDP growth. It turns a blind eye to the fact that the gains may result from exploitation of workers.
Over the past six months, I've interviewed many factory workers who struggle to survive on the 300-baht minimum wage and tough working conditions that, in turn, affect their quality of life and productivity.
I was told the 300-baht minimum wage can't match the higher living costs today. JustNet, an independent research group, estimates that the current minimum wage can pay for only 35% of actual living costs.
So workers must work overtime to earn enough. This means some work more than 12 hours a day with no chance of improving their skills and abilities. This causes family relationships to deteriorate.
In a bid to compete in the market place, their employers lower product prices to increase sales. A female worker in an automotive brake manufacturing firm said there are more and more defective products made by her colleagues, as a direct result of poor wages and a lack of measures to improve workers' skills.
According to the Global Competitiveness 2016-2017 report, Thailand's overall competitiveness has stumbled from ranking 31 among 138 countries in 2014-2015 to 34 recently. As for its labour market efficiency, Thailand is ranked 71.
Worst of all, in the eyes of outsiders, is that workers' attempts to bargain with employers such as in the case of the Mitsubishi Electric labour union are seen as them making "excessive" demands. For me, it's simply trying to achieve fairness.
We have to eradicate the false belief that giving decent wages and treating workers fairly will undermine the economy. Actually, the opposite is true.