The research on Imported Laotian Workers in Songkhla Province: Process, Problems and Consequences aims to study the administration and management processes of Laotian workers importation. The study includes criteria and practices of concerned authorities and agencies dealing with Laotian workers. It also looks at problems and difficulties prevailed at both policy and implementation levels. The impacts on Laotian workers and employers as well as the consequences on socio-economic changes were also studied. The research has been conducted by qualitative methods involving documentary research, field research and theoretical discussion on labour market and migration and international labour employment processes. The study is presented in a descriptive manner which could be summarized as follows: During the year 2002-2004, Songkhla province had faced a labour shortage problem due to a rapid expansion of the agricultural industries. As a result, the demand for the unskilled labour has risen sharply. At the same time, an economic downturn in Laos has put the country into a low rate of employment. This situation has led to the international cooperation for exporting and importing labour between two countries in the year 2006. The policy and the plan of action were formulated by both countries under the Memorandum of Understanding on the cooperation in the Employment of workers which emphasized the protection of the rights of migrant workers. The MoU was also a setting standard to control and protect labour import and export between Laos and Thailand. It was formulated according to the foreign labour management strategies of Thailand and in accordance with the permission to work and being protected under Article 8 of the Employment.
It was found that the importation of Laotian to work normally and in Thailand of Aliens Act 1978 legally has enabled them to be prepared for a job by an orientation which was organized by the recruitment agencies in Laos to inform on the nature of work and work hours. In Thailand, they were trained on work skills, regulations in the workplace and the use of safety instruments. Labour migration provides them with a sufficient income to send home and also gain an access to health care system. As far as the problems and difficulties concerned Laotian workers, it includes the high cost of the recruitment service fee and communication problem. Moreover, some jobs posed extensive risks from chemical and factory machine. The labour importation causes a positive gain to the employers since it reduces the production cost and therefore increases the competitiveness. However, employers still face problems of the delay in the labour importation process and labour has no sufficient skill to work in a factory. Besides, the employers also face a high risk in the capital investment seen in terms of the high cost in the employment recruitment. For the recruitment agencies, problems are the difficulty in recruiting labour, the delay in the importation proceses competition among the recruiting agencies and run-away workers. Problems of the management agencies are that there is no coordination in the implementation among the authorities in the area, lacking of clear regulations and guiding principles for the consideration of workers’ welfare, monitoring of workers’ health care service and limited number of health personels and hospitals, lack of clear regulations for employment quota and lack of information on Lao labour supplies for Thai employers.
