Authorities to solve problems of Thai workers in Sweden, Finland

BANGKOK, October 4 (TNA) - Employment officials will soon visit Sweden and Finland to solve problems for Thai workers there. Pravit Khiengpol, Director-General of the Ministry of Labour's Department of Employment, told reporters on Thursday that 240 out of 6,100 Thai workers who collected berries in Sweden did not receive their full wages because their employers deducted their money for the repayment of the workers’ debts. Pravit explained that the Thai workers, who have already returned to Thailand, borrowed from banks to pay for their trips to work in Sweden. Pravit noted that the Thai workers legally received visas for their work and were clients of job placement firms and they each paid 78,000 baht for their trips to the work. Pravit said his department has demanded the Swedish employers to fully pay wages to the Thai workers because Thailand's labour protection law requires employers to fully pay contracted wages and those who fail to do so will face legal actions from his department. For Finland, the senior official acknowledged that about 3,000 Thai workers went there by themselves with tourist visas and about 50 of them complained because their employers ordered them to collect the kinds of berries with which they were unfamiliar and they did not know how to collect the fruits. Besides, some of them were brought to places where there were no berries, causing their visas to be revoked because they traveled outside their specified areas. According to the senior Thai official, his department's officials will soon fly to Sweden and Finland to inquire about the exact amounts of labour the employers need for berry collection and to convince them to issue visas which match their labour demand so that Thai workers will not have to compete in berry collection there. Besides, the officials will also inquire about berry demand of the Swedish and Finnish governments to ensure that Thai workers have secure incomes there. (TNA)