The government should encourage Thai workers to upgrade their particular skills including vocabulary study to gain an edge in the South Korean job market, according to a labour researcher.
Samarn Laodamrongchai, an academic from Chulalongkorn University’s East Asian Studies Institute, said providing Thai job seekers with expert and language skills will likewise address the problem of unlawful workers, or “little ghosts”.
In-depth research on legal and illegal Thai workers within South Korea offers indicated numerous Thais registered under Southern Korea’s Employment Enable System (EPS) have grown to be illegal migrants as they are not allowed to change job opportunities.
Within South Korea, foreign workers are allowed to change jobs no more than five times all through their stay: 3 times in the first 3 years of employment and two more moments after contract revival.
Thais have been found to change jobs for a number of reasons. The two most common reasons are better spend and problems related to language barriers.
Mr Samarn said Thai work officials in South Korea should motivate Thai workers to improve their Korean-language skills at learning centres.
Mobile meetings also needs to be held in provinces where Thai employees are employed to provide immediate assistance.
He added that will labour officials are an important contact to get Thai workers registered under the EPS.
About three-quarters of Thai man workers in South Korea are employed in manufacturing and have been granted a non-professional (E-9) visa. Nevertheless , South Korea will be looking to hire a lot more skilled workers whom hold an E-7 visa which allows to get a longer stay in the nation. He said the Thai government ought to speed up all efforts to enhance Thai workers’ skills and provide them for better jobs at increased pay.
Citing Department associated with Employment figures, Surachai Chaitrakulthong, an assistant to the labour ressortchef (umgangssprachlich), said only a small number of legal Thai employees will eventually become little ghosts, because the problem is mainly because of illegal entry in to South Korea.
Mr Surachai also said this individual was not surprised to hear of media reports that a South Korean minister disagreed having a proposal to relax regulations against some 390, 000 illegal migrant workers. Such a hardline stance is normal in the South Korean political context and thus not unexpected.
Figures provided by the South Korean embassy in Thailand show as of December last year, 18, 221 Thai nationals were legally employed in the country. The number of illegal employees, meanwhile, was estimated at 140, 000.