Thai government echoed for six-month delay of tough law against migrant workers

BANGKOK, July 3 (TNA) - A senior Thai economist and academic has called for a six-month delay of the enforcement of a new executive decree with tougher penalties against both illegal migrant workers and their employers. Vice Rector of Rangsit University Anusorn Thammajai, who is also Dean of the wellknown private university's Faculty of Economics, made the call on Monday, cautioning that Thailand's economic growth could drop to less than 3 per cent in the third quarter of this year unless the imposition of the new harsh law was postponed. Anusorn pointed out that a large number of migrant workers have left Thailand since the new executive decree was promulgated on June 23, having affected local businesses which have faced the shortage of unskilled labor and migrant workers are, thus, their main labor forces for production. The senior economist said the delay in the implementation of the new executive decree on the management of migrant workers would also help prevent a slowdown of the construction of new mega-infrastructure development projects in Thailand. The senior economist also proposed that the Thai government promulgate a new bill on a management reform of migrant workers 2018 instead, covering skilled personnel in eight professions stated in the ASEAN Economic Blueprint, in order to allow stakeholders to share their views on the law and ratify the Labor Convention 87 and 98 of the International Labor Organization (ILO) on the protection of workers' basic rights. Besides, the new bill should include necessary training and educational requirements for migrant workers and members of their families and support for more use of automatic robots or high technological machines in domestic production to relieve the shortage of unskilled labor forces. In response to echos for the postponement of the new executive decree, the Thai government decided on June 30 to adjourn the implementation of the new harsh law, in which legal penalties for violators are set at as high as 400,000-800,000 fines per worker, for 120 days or about four months. (TNA)