The Ministry of Labour of the Kingdom of Thailand and the International Labour Organization (ILO) has co-organised three capacity building training courses for labour inspectors. The first training course was carried out on 13 March 2018 in Chonburi Province where 30 labour inspectors from Bangkok and 22 coastal provinces participated. The second and third training courses are also scheduled to be held in April and May 2018 respectively.

In 2017, the Ministry of Labour together with the ILO conducted training for 90 labour inspectors from Bangkok and 22 coastal provinces. The training was a part of “Ship to Shore Rights Project”, funded by the European Union in cooperation with the ILO and the Ministry of Labour, to combat unacceptable forms of work in the Thai fishing and seafood industries. These 90 labour inspectors will also take part in the 2018 training courses to build on their expertise to advise their colleagues for more effective inspections.

In the past three years, the Thai Government has attached great importance to improve efficiency of the Thai labour inspections, especially in the fishing and seafood industries, by strengthening their capacity for preventing and detecting labour rights violation. The government has also increased the number of labour inspectors to meet the ILO standard. The number of labour inspectors increased 21 percent from 1,245 officers in 2016 to 1,506 officers in 2017 and a further new 186 labour inspectors are expected to be recruited this year.

From 19 December 2016 to 25 December 2017, the inspections and interviews of 53,508 migrant workers at 22 PIPO centers in coastal areas showed that 3,496 migrant worker were violated under the labour protection law by their employers. These cases were already concluded by the Administrative Sanction Committee. Moreover, in 2017, 358 seafood processing factories were inspected, of which 142 factories were found having violated the law. Nine factories were shut down by the Administrative Sanction Committee’s rulings.