Wage hike to be delayed until April

The Bt300 rate was due to be implemented first in Bangkok, Phuket, Samut Prakan, Nakhon Pathom, Nonthaburi, Pathum Thani and Samut Sakhon, said Labour Minister Phadermchai Sasomsap, who proposed the delay.

Many of those provinces have been heavily inundated.

The Bt300 rate will go into effect in 70 other provinces on January 1 of 2013, 2014 and 2015, and could be increased after 2014 depending on variables including inflation and the cost of living, he added.

Based on an average increase of 40 per cent, the minimum wage will vary in other provinces, when it takes effect locally in different areas at different times. The rate will go to Bt274.40 in Chon Buri, Bt270.20 in Chachoengsao and Saraburi, Bt266 in Ayutthaya, Bt257.60 in Krabi, Bt256.20 in Nakhon Ratchasima and Prachin Buri, and Bt254.8 in Lop Buri.

Labour groups submitted an open letter to the Labour Ministry calling for more assistance and action from the government.

The Bt2,000 stipend for three months granted recently to employers to pay their workers during the suspension of operations due to the floods was not enough, they said.

Chalee Loisoong, head of the Thai Labour Solidarity Committee (TLSC), said all workers were even entitled to 100-per-cent pay during the break, citing the Bt900-billion fund the government said it would mobilise when it proposed a New Thailand scheme two months ago.

He said the idea of three months of Bt2,000 compensation was not feasible for small companies, which could not continue to contribute to the fund and would opt instead to lay off workers or even close down.

Chalee also called for assistance for out-of-system workers such as farmers, migrant workers and those who take on handicraft or contract work at home.

The other measures called for on behalf of the TLSC are for workers to have a say in an upcoming government assistance package and for the government to issue a detailed announcement of flood damage to all businesses in Thailand.

Yongyuth Mentaphao, the chairman of the Federation of Auto Workers' Unions of Thailand, said he feared that part-time workers and those hired under wholesale labour deals - who constitute half of the workforce in the auto-assembly industry - may not benefit from government assistance like full-time staff.

Thanakij Sasopha, a leader of Honda Thailand workers, urged the Labour Ministry to hold a meeting and mediate talks between workers and authorities to see how they would help the makers and suppliers of auto parts, which had been heavily affected by floods, just like the assistance promised to auto-makers.