Over 600 workers in Korat laid off

[KoratCat]

Over 600 workers in Nakhon Ratchasima laid off

NAKHON RATCHASIMA, Jan 8 (TNA) - After experiencing global economic recession and declining purchase orders from overseas, two major foreign firms producing auto and electronics parts laid off 623 of their employees Thursday with severance pay.

The laid-off workers of Shin-Ei High Tech Co., Ltd. and Shin-Ei Kataoka Casting (Thailand) Co., Ltd. packed their personal effects and left the companies' premises after the firms announced their decision to cut production.

All the newly-jobless workers had been employed by the companies less than two years. They were told that their severance pay will be transferred to their bank accounts on Friday.

Labour officials in the northeastern province of Nakhon Ratchasima said that in November and December the firms had already terminated some 200 staff.

Another company, Seagate (Thailand) Co., Ltd., a major electronics producer, in Sung Noen district of Nakhon Ratchasima also on Thursday laid off about 70 employees in its plan to terminate more than 400 workers' employment.

More than 3,000 employees in Nakhon Ratchasima province have been laid off by their employers since 2008.

Meanwhile, more than 800 subcontract workers of Single Point Parts (Thailand) Pcl. in Ayutthaya, near Bangkok, who were laid off by the company, gathered at the factory entrance again on Thursday demanding that their employers give them severance pay.

They said the company paid each of them only Bt500 in dismissing them and said it was unfair, and that they would block the entrance to prevent the company's permanent employees from working if the company refused to help them.

Under Thai labour law, subcontracted workers who are not directly employed by a company are not entitled to severance pay. (TNA)

MCOT Jan. 8, 2009

[KoratCat]

electronic, auto-parts maker to cut most jobs

Workers cite plunge in orders, merger of production facilities

Shin-Ei High Tech laid off 650 workers at its plant in the Suranaree Industrial Estate, Nakhon Ratchasima as the global economic crisis continues to severely deplete its orders.

The plant formerly employed about 1,700 workers. About 400 were laid off in October. Another 350 are expected to lose their jobs next week.

Workers said orders for electronics and auto parts had dropped more than 50 per cent since October. Moreover, the company will merge the production at the Suranaree plant with that of another one, in the Navanakorn II Industrial Zone, in the province's Muang district.

Kwanruan Padklang, a victim of the lay-offs, said she had prepared herself for this but did not expect it to come so soon. Though all affected workers received full compensation, she would have preferred to maintain her employment status. With two children, the single mother, who received about Bt20,000 in compensation, will need to save until she can find a new job.

Established in 1994, Shin-Ei started the production of mould-making, die-casting and machining of hard disk drives and automotive parts at the Nakhon Ratchasima plant in the following year.

Japan-based Shin-Ei Group operates four plants in Thailand: two in Suranaree, one in Navanakorn II Industrial Zone, and one in Wang Noi, Ayutthaya. Shin-Ei Precision (Thailand) was established last year to run a new plant in the Rojana Industrial Estate in Ayutthaya, which has not yet started manufacturing.

Since October 2008, about six plants in Nakhon Ratchasima have laid off over 3,000 workers. Prior to that, about 20,000 were unemployed.

Meanwhile, the Labour Ministry's Employment Department director-general, Phichai Ekphithak-damrong, announced yesterday that Thailand would not extend employment to over 500,000 Burmese workers who illegally sneaked into the Kingdom, saying the priority was to take care of Thai workers.

"Employers need to give a chance to Thai workers first, due to the economic crisis," he said.

The Nation Jan. 9,2009