Saturday 9 April 2016

Andy Hall on the MoU system of migrant employment in Thailand

Andy Hall offers some excellent critiques of the fraught MoU system for employment of migrants in Thailand, which facilitates debt bondage and other constraints on migrants changing employers.   
The system had failed in that it obliged migrant workers to stick to an assigned workplace as indicated in the contract. Worse, the system grants the right to agencies without workplaces to accommodate the workers. With such a (MoU) system, those who want -- or are forced to -- to change workplaces, have no other choice but to throw away the official documents, despite their financial and psychological worth, and instead opt for the pink card, which enables them to change workplaces. However, holders of this semi-regular migrant worker card are at risk of being deprived of social security benefits. With the pink card, workers have limited freedom of movement and could face deportation.
"MoU system still exploits workers," Bangkok Post, 8 April 2016

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