Pattaya now suffering serious labour shortages

[reader]

At the end of this article I'm posting a link to Gaybutton's board about the recent presentation by Pattaya Mail columnist Barry Kenyon at the Pattaya City Expats Club. The former British honorary consul to Pattaya discusses changes in the  way the media has developed in Pattaya over the past three decades. I found it both entertaining and informative and thought you may, too.

From Pattaya Mail

By Brry Kenyon

Employers throughout Thailand, particularly in the Pattaya region, are complaining that they cannot find enough manual workers to satisfy their demands. Officially, there are 600,000 Thais unemployed in government statistics. However, Poj Armamwattananint, vice-chair of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, said that even unemployed Thais showed a great reluctance to accept labouring jobs. He thought there was no chance of this situation ending, especially as the Thai birth rate has been plummeting for years and continues to do so.

Hence, attention has turned to finding more guest workers from Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, the three countries which have Memoranda of Understanding with Thailand. There are currently an estimated 2.1 million migrant workers allowed to work legally here during the Covid-19 pandemic. The last Chonburi provincial figures, which include Pattaya, gave a total of 160,000 although the entire data is soft and does not include illegal entrants. About 80 percent are from Myanmar.

Jessataporn Sriboo, managing director of the Chonburi foreign workers’ registration offices adjoining the Jomtien immigration bureau said, “In Pattaya City guest manual workers are needed for ongoing building projects, especially condominiums, as well as for many road repair projects which are sub-contracted by City Hall.” He added that outside Pattaya, there were also many vacancies for fruit pickers, factory workers and aboard fishing vessels.

Mr Sriboo stressed that the main problem was the land border situation. “The official crossings are semi-closed because of Covid and only allow through goods traffic, returning residents and a small number of other foreigners.” He said that many Myanmars do approach the Thai immigration checkpoints only to be told that they require entry documentation and must immediately quarantine for 14 days in supervised accommodation. “The problem is that nobody, including potential employers, wants to pay for quarantine which, together with other registration costs, can amount to 20,000-30,000 baht.”

As a result many wannabe labourers cross the borders illegally, with or without hired guides, and some end up in the Pattaya area where the streets are “paved with gold” according to rumour. However, the problem then is that they are not able to obtain proper work permit documentation because of their illegal status which, in turn, makes employers nervous of employing them because of inspections by immigration police or the Department of Labour. Illegal workers are not included in inter-country agreements about Covid health tests and access to free treatment in Thai public sector hospitals.

As a partial solution, the Thai government has agreed to renew the work permits and visas of legal immigrants for up to two years, without their having to return to their homeland first as they were required to do pre-pandemic. In any case, the post-coup political situation in Myanmar makes journeying back home virtually impossible.

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Barry Kenyon at the Pattaya City Expats Club:

https://gaybuttonthai.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=10404&start=320

 

 

[Guest]

The way to deal with a shortage of labour is to either pay more to attract the staff or to improve productivity, including by automating more.   If someone can't pay the going rate for labour and make a profit, then they don't have a viable business model.

I'm not sure what productivity in the manual sector is like, however in the service sector, it must be terrible, due to manually doing work that should be automated.  A visit to Jomtien Immigration demonstrates this.  They have manual checks for all sorts of things that could be done by computer.   Then, despite photographing the user whilst extending his visa (etc), they also require duplicate paper forms, passport photos etc.   The whole lot could be more or less automated and they should then fire about 90% of the staff to free up some labour.

Then if I do a simple task like visiting the bank to get a replacement ATM card, again the process is shambolic.  Lots of paperwork and illogical processes, like asking for a cash payment for the new card, then refunding remaining fees for the old card to the bank account.   Why can't I simply request it via the banking app, then show up at the specified branch to just collect it ?   (After showing ID).    With my main UK bank account, I've never even visited a branch.  In fact, I couldn't visit a branch if I wanted to, as they have none.

As for the manual sector, I don't follow it as closely, but doubt the culture would be much different.    If they stopped a lot of the pointless construction contracts that involve digging up a perfectly good road and resurfacing it, that would free up some labour.   I'm sure there are lots of things that could be done to improve productivity.      There are some signs of this, such as floor cleaning robots appearing in certain Bangkok shops.

 

 

[PeterRS]

@z909 is spot on. There is far too much red tape and other out of date procedures. I was at the Head Office of Bangkok Bank yesterday as my passbook was full and I needed a new one. Such a simple procedure meant I had to wait almost an hour and then go through various form filling which included signing a copy of my passport. Since the bank already has several copies of my passport all signed by me, why another is needed for every transaction beats me. Also, when I looked at each officers desk, there was a huge stack of paperwork that presumably someone eventually has to file. For the life of me, I cannot understand why passbooks are still required for everyone!

The same is true, but worse, if you visit Chaengwattana to renew your visa. You see mountains of paperwork everywhere.

Since my recent test&go form with its 7 or 8 uploads was all completed by phone and the QR code issued quickly by email, I can only think the reason for the lack of computerisation elsewhere is for the government to ensure high rates of employment.