Prattana Phodee, President of the Thailand Government Employee Network, has filed an appeal against the Social Security Board election result, after the Social Security Office announced the official vote count and he lost over 1300 votes.

6 members of Progressive Social Security, a team of 7 labour rights advocates, have won most of the employee representatives’ seats on the Social Security Board in the country’s first-ever Social Security Board election, which had been postponed from 2015.

<p>Because of bureaucratic impediments, foreign migrant workers are often unable to get social security cards and obtain access to the Thai public health care system.</p>

<p>During the Covid-19 pandemic, most sex workers have no income and no social security but are able to apply for the government aid scheme, says the Empower Foundation in a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/296033753854158/photos/a.308609862596547/1668104156647104/?type=3&amp;theater&amp;ifg=1">statement</a> on Tuesday (12 May), which also called for the legalization of sex work and for sex workers to be able to join the social security scheme.</p>

<p dir="ltr">People with disabilities have urged Thai authorities not to reduce the health coverage they receive when employed.</p> <p dir="ltr">Dr. Yot Teerawattananon, Director of Health Intervention and Technology Assessment Program (HITAP), on Saturday, 20 August 2016, expressed concerns about recent changes to the government’s health coverage scheme for people with disabilities. The reforms transfer people with disabilities from universal health coverage to a social security scheme when they successfully find employment.</p>

<p>The Thai junta leader invoked Section 44 of the Interim Charter, which gives the military government nearly absolute power, to appoint a new Social Security Office committee amid concerns from labour groups.</p> <p>Wilaiwan Saetia, Vice President of the Thai Labour Solidarity Committee, told Prachatai in an interview that she is concerned about the recent move of the military government to appoint new board members to the Social Security Committee and its subcommittees.</p>

<p><em>A cautionary tale of an informal worker's life</em><em> produced by an "indie" director and released by a commercial studio giant sheds light on freelance graphic designers' constant threat of joblessness and sickness due to their lack of a social security and health insurance.</em></p> <p></p>

<p>Since November 2010, the Social Security Office of Thailand has promised social security benefits to migrants holding temporary passports. This promise became policy under the Cabinet Resolution of January 15th 2013.&nbsp; Migrants who persevered through all the steps and all the fees to regularize themselves believed that it would eventually be worth all the effort.&nbsp; They were led to believe that the temporary passport would be their gateway to 300 baht a day wage, access to all seven benefits of social security and to the Workmen’s Compensation Fund. But they have been deceived.</p> <p></p>