Labour panel helps workers in flood zones

The Thai Labour Solidarity Committee and labour unions in flood-affected areas have set up a number of offices to provide help and advice to workers encountering flood-related problems.

Five centres have so far been established to reach out to flood affected labourers and receive complaints regarding the impact of the floods on their employment.

The first centre is located at the TLSC's head office in Ratchathewi district of Bangkok. This centre also serves as a coordination bureau for receiving complaints from flood-affected workers from all areas.

The second centre is in Ayutthaya's Bang Pa-in district and is responsible for helping workers at the Rojana Industrial Park, Saharattananakhon Industrial Estate, Bangpa-in Industrial Estate, Hi-Tech Industrial Estate, Nava Nakorn Industrial Estate, and Factory Land Industrial Estate.

The third centre is in Pathum Thani's Khlong Luang district and is responsible for distributing donated relief supplies to flood-affected workers in the province.

The fourth centre has been set up at the Thai Allied Committee with the Desegregated Burma Foundation's (TACDB) office in Bangkok and is responsible for providing help to migrant workers from Burma, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam in all flooded provinces.

A number of workers in Samut Sakhon were required to return to work after their employers successfully pumped out water from their factories, said Aranya Chaimi, a coordinator of a labour group in the Om Noi municipality in Krathum Baen district of Samut Sakhon and Om Yai municipality in Sam Phran district of Nakhon Pathom.

The orders for workers to go back to work came with an ultimatum that if they failed to show up they would lose their jobs, which is unfair because the roads leading to those factories as well as to the workers' homes were still largely flooded, Ms Aranya said.

Ayutthaya labour group chairman Udom Kraiyarat said subcontract workers were of particular concern because they were more susceptible to being laid off.