By Yoon Satt - Jan 20, 2024
Chairman of the Joint Action Committee on Burmese People's Affairs (JACBA) U Moe Gyo said that a a construction employer from Maesot, Thailand is avoiding paying the wages of 26 Burmese migrant workers. It is also known that the workers reported to the Thai Labor Protection and Social Security Office (Sawatdeekan Office) for this evasion.
“The construction company paid the contract the budget. That contract give to another contract. There are three stages. The official of the Thai Ministry of Labor must decide who is responsible for paying the wages of these 26 workers over two hundred thousand baht. The employer must be summoned. As the workers are illegals Thai Ministry of Labour took the fingerprints and registration documents. They would be a resolvent after 60 days,” said U Moe Gyo, President of JACBA who is helping the migrant workers in Thailand.
It is reported that 26 workers worked in the construction industry from June to October 2023. It is reported that the Thai employer’s intermediary, the contractor (Phoe Lat Maung) is evading payment of over 200,000 baht in wages to the workers.
‘We are working as masonries in that construction site. We didn’t get our wages since the July of last year. We continue working until October with the hope that we would get paid back soon. We quicked when it was sure that we won’t get it back. It have been about seven months. We gathered and reported to the office in order to get our wages back,” said Ko Htet, one of the among 26 workers
As the wages of 23 workers from Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge construction site who file as the first attempt before were recovered, the current 26 workers file the issue in order to get their wages back although they are illegal migrant workers.
23 workers from No.2 Friendship Bridge construction site got back over 1 lakh baht. Taking this as an example, they risked it. There are about 100 Myanmar workers in that site. Only previous 23 workers and current 26 workers are dare to report the Thai Ministry of Labor,” said U Moe Gyo, President of JACBA.
There are 9 female workers among those 26 workers and the wages are set as 350 baht for the men and 320 baht for the women, said the workers. U Moe Gyo, President of JACBA said that there are increments in evading the wages by the employers and their agents in the construction sites, family businesses, agriculture and livestock industry within the Tak district.
