Nearly 3,800 Workers Laid Off By Flooded Factories In Ayutthaya

BANGKOK, November 24 (TNA) - Employers whose manufacturing plants were hit by recent floods in Thailand's central Ayutthaya Province have laid off nearly 3,800 workers. Wannarat Srisuksai, labour protection and welfare chief in Ayutthaya, said Thursday that the number of the flooded manufacturers, where layoffs were reported, has risen to 14, causing a total of 3,787 workers to have become jobless, although the management of all the factories has paid compensation to the workers as required by the laws worth some 91 million baht altogether. Wannarat acknowledged that the laid-off workers will also receive additional financial assistance, worth 50 per cent of their latest salaries, for six months from the Thai Ministry of Labour's Social Security Fund (SSF). According to the senior Thai labour official, unemployment rates have, however, remained low in Ayutthaya, where there are as many as 5,000 workplaces employing a total of some 300,000 workers and the Labour Ministry has, therefore, informed the laid-off workers that other manufacturing plants in the province unaffected by recent floods now need as many as 50,000 new workers. Meanwhile, many parties, including the Thai Ministry of Energy and even the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), have joined forces since November 17 in hurriedly pumping floodwater out of the 7,743-rai or over-12-square kilometer-Rojana Industrial Park, the largest among seven flooded industrial sites in Thailand in which 230 factories are housed with their combined investment of 85 billion baht. The management of the Rojana Industrial Park has assessed that floodwater should be completely drained out from the compound by December 6, 2011. (TNA)