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Update on Labor Quota Rules in the Kingdom of Thailand

Transcript of the above video:

As the title to this video suggests we are going to be discussing Labor Quota. We did another video specifically on this topic talking about the cap they are looking to put on foreigners working in Thailand. There is apparently going to be a 20% cap placed on foreign workers in a given endeavor relative to the Thai workers associated with said endeavor. This hasn’t quite come into effect yet as we will point out here in a moment, but this is pretty big; this is important. So the title of the article coming from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com. The title is: SMEs Urge Migrant Quota Rethink. Quoting directly: “The Act on Management of Migrant Labour, passed by the National Legislative Assembly in April, puts a cap on the number of migrant workers at 20 % per company aiming to protect employment opportunities for Thais.” Quoting further: “The new law will take effect in early July with section 11 stating that it is for the benefit and protection of opportunities for Thai careers development. The Employment Department is compiling job seeking registrations from all Thai nationals who wish to work as well as their qualifications.”

What should you be taking away from this? And I urge those who are watching this video to go check out bangkokpost.com for that article specifically as there is a great deal more information contained in there but I am going to just give my 2 cents on this. Specifically this seemed to be dealing with migrant labor in the sense of like, Myanmar nationals working in the Kingdom of Thailand, Laos nationals, Cambodian nationals working in the Kingdom of Thailand but I think this is going to have knock on ramifications for all foreign nationals working here in the Kingdom as this 20% seems to be a hard and fast rule. Now presumably, this isn’t going to cover things like companies who are being promoted under BOI, Board of Investment, so those folks don’t really need to worry about this. Furthermore, it has always been a rule, sort of a hard and fast rule that you had to have a ratio of 4:1 employees to 1 foreigner working in a given endeavor with respect to Thai work permit regulations for foreign nationals. That doesn’t seem to be changing. What I will find interesting is whether this will have ramifications for those with permanent residence in the Kingdom of Thailand or whether this will have ramifications for those who are on a marriage visa in the Kingdom of Thailand and I go into some explanation into that in other videos on this channel.  

The thing to take away from this video today. Clearly we are seeing a sea-change with respect to enforcement and policy within the Labor Ministry here in the Kingdom in much the same way we have seen a massive change in policy and enforcement within the Immigration apparatus in the Kingdom.  So we will keep you updated with the specifics on how this may change things but as of now, those who are just in a classic B visa with a work permit, so long as the relevant rules and regulations are being adhered to, I don’t see where this is going to be a major problem. But that being said, moving forward, this could have knock on effects for those foreigners of all stripe who are working here in the Kingdom.