A new law to regulate the security guard business is expected to ensure more safety for the public, but tougher rules also mean some guards might find it hard to keep their jobs.
The bill passed its third reading before the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) last week on a vote of 172 to 1. Five NLA members abstained.
According to the bill's advocates, the industry needs to be regulated because people's lives and properties are at stake.
Companies providing security staff have been springing up with uneven standards, the bill's preamble says.
The bill will help set industry-wide standards and improve the performance of guards, it says.
The push for the changes followed an incident in September last year, when a former security guard allegedly killed a four-year-old girl nearby an apartment building where he had worked as a guard in Bangkok's Bukkhalo area.
Police said the former guard was not a Thai national. The owner of the security service company which hired him said the firm was forced to hire foreign workers because of an industry shortage.
The bill will come into effect 120 days after it is announced in the Royal Gazette.
The bill states that security guard providers must meet the new required standards to be able to obtain certification to run their business.
Security guards must seek permission from registrars, undergo background checks and attend training certified by registrars.
The registrar in Bangkok is the Metropolitan Police Bureau commissioner while each provincial police chief is the registrar in other provinces.
Guards must be at least 18 years old and have finished Mathayom 3 (Grade 9) at school or higher.
They cannot be alcoholics or drug abusers. A sexual abuse conviction also bars them from the profession.
The push to prohibit sex abusers was driven by NLA member Wallop Tang-kananurak.
Even those who have been freed from jail are at risk of re-offending, said Mr Wallop.
Fellow NLA member Nipatha Amorn-rattanamaeta agreed, saying that sex offenders rarely change their behaviour.
According to the original draft, former inmates are also barred from jobs as guards for the first three years after their release from jail. The NLA committee changed the wording to expand the period to five years instead.
The bill, meanwhile, is seen as giving greater credibility to the profession. Security guards play a role in helping police and maintaining peace in society, the bill says.
Watcharapol Bussamongkol, president of the Security Services Association of Thailand (SSAT), supported the idea of regulating the industry and setting standards for guards.
But the bill tends puts too much emphasis on supervising security service companies, and not enough on career promotion for guards, he said.
The committee on security service business supervision, set up by the legislation, must give operators enough time to adapt to the changes, he said.
"Authorities should relax the requirement that guards must have completed Mathayom 3 or higher. More than half the guards finish only primary education," he said.
A shortage of security guards is a major issue, he said.
He also expressed concerns about the impact of the law on small operators, which make up 70% of an industry employing about 200,000 people.
They must also pay 50,000 baht for a permit, which might come as a burden for small operators already hit with social security contributions, tax and other expenses, he said.
Referring to supervisory committee set up under the bill, he said people in the industry will not automatically have seats on the panel.
They can be chosen to sit as part of a quota of experts but they must be nominated by the panel's chairman, who is the police chief, and endorsed by the prime minister.
The law should make it easier for the industry to be represented on the panel, he said.
He said the law should also include measures to ensure people can be compensated in the event of damage caused by guards' negligence.
Insurance companies should be brought in to shoulder the cost, according to Mr Watcharapol.
A guard with 20 years experience who works for the War Veterans Organisation of Thailand said his employer is unlikely to have problems with the changes.
He said his superiors have carried out checks to ensure guards have completed Mathayom 3.
"Efforts to regulate the security guard industry will help boost consumer confidence and the image of the profession,'' he said.
He said, however, the bill should have included clauses on welfare and allowances to raise the living standards of guards.
"I have to work 12 hours a day. If I take a day off, I will be unable to earn enough to feed my family," said the guard.
He said many guards have left the industry because of the meagre earnings.
Many earn just 300 baht a day, on par with the daily minimum wage, regardless of experience.
He also called on the government to roll out a campaign to support savings among guards to ensure they have money for their retirement. Chinnakorn Junkao, 37, has been working as a guard for eight months.
"I hope there is some sort of safety net for those who have long finished school and who later wish to work as guards like me," he said
"If you start late, you lose the opportunity to work in this sector. What would we be left with -- jobs as labourers on a construction site?"