Labourers have bone to pick with agencies

Job placement agents authorised to send workers to Sweden to pick wild berries have blacklisted about 200 people who complained last year about "unfair" work contracts.

The complaints are being investigated by the Department of Special Investigation and pending action by the Labour Court.

The complaints concern three companies: Siam Royal Service Group Co, Sin Sunshine Co and TS Law & Business Co.

A staff member from one of the three confirmed that the companies had agreed not to recruit any of the workers that had brought the action against them.

The companies are worried the workers might damage the companies' reputation, said the source who requested anonymity.

However, one of the workers who took legal action against the three job placement firms said they only wanted to have their problems brought out in the open.

The worker said pickers were charged a lot of money to secure their jobs and had to shoulder high living costs while in Sweden.

The workers' move had been lauded by the Swedish authorities as a brave act to reveal "the inconvenient truth" of Thai workers who were taken advantage of, said a worker who declined to be named.

He said workers just wanted to improve their work benefits but they had been blacklisted after complaining.

Khammai Panchamroon, 40, another berry picker from Chaiyaphum who filed a lawsuit against a job placement company that sent him to Sweden last year, said he decided to return home early because there were fewer berries to pick and more pickers competing for the crop.

He said he realised he would not be able to earn enough money to cover his living costs in Sweden if he and his wife had stayed.

Official figures show the number of Thai workers travelling to Sweden for berry picking jobs last year doubled over 2008 to 3,500.

Mr Khammai said he is still struggling to repay about 4,000 baht every month since he returned from Sweden last year. He and his wife borrowed 200,000 baht for the trip.

The average travel cost for each berry picking trip - including visa fees and other related expenses - is about 100,000 baht a person.

"My wife and I want to give it a try again and hope to make enough money to pay off the old debts from last year's trip," Mr Khammai said. He said he would like the government to limit the number of berry pickers to avoid the problems of last year.

Last year's dispute between the Thai berry pickers and their employers has prompted the Swedish government and related agencies to come up with measures aimed at protecting berry picking workers from unfair working conditions.

Thai job placement agents authorised to hire Thai berry pickers to work in Sweden will be required in the coming harvesting season to adopt a minimum wage insurance regulation. The companies will have to take responsibility for ensuring hired workers can earn at least 70,000 baht a month, otherwise they will have to pay them compensation.

The minimum wage insurance will cover a period of three months but if the workers fail to pick enough berries, they will not be eligible to receive the compensation.

It is also required to be stated clearly in a work contract that berry pickers will be responsible for their own living costs while working in Sweden.

The Thai work contracts will be subjected to thorough checks by the Swedish Trade Union Confederation.

The berry-picking work contracts must be submitted for verification by the confederation before workers can apply for a visa with the Swedish embassy in Bangkok, said Suphat Kukhun, deputy director-general of the Department of Employment.

If workers pick more berries than they are required, employers will have to pay them extra based on the market price of the fruit.

The new employment regulation also requires employers to allow the pickers to have two days off a week and work only eight hours a day with a one-hour break.

Chongrak Intharamat, a potential berry picker from Nakhon Ratchasima, said the regulation is impractical because in practice the workers will want to work as many hours a day as they can to make sure they earn enough money.

Still, the minimum amount of berries one worker will be required to pick a day could become a problem if it is set too high, he said.