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.

Members of the Progressive Social Security team at their post-election press conference. From left: Chalit Ratapana, Thanaporn Wichan, Sustarum Thammaboosadee, Lakshmi Suwanpakdee, and Thanapong Chuamuangpan. (Photo from Progressive Movement)

Thammasat University lecturer Sustarum Thammaboosadee, Textile Industrial Labour Thai Union committee member Thanapong Chuamuangpan, Workers’ Union member Chalit Ratapana, Migrant Working Group consultant Siwawong Suktawee, ThisAble.me editor and disability rights advocate Nalutporn Krairiksh, and Molnlycke Health Care Company Union President Lakshmi Suwanpakdee, who ran as part of the team, won 6 of the 7 employee representatives’ seats. Sustarum won the most votes with 71,917 votes, while the rest of the team each received over 67,000 votes.

Sustarum said at a press conference on Sunday night that he hopes the results of the Social Security Board election represent a good sign for the next election, and that fighting for democracy at the national level would be pointless if workers are still exploited.

He thanked the voters, other candidates, and Social Security Office workers, noting that employees of the Social Security Office also deserve to be treated properly as workers. He said that what it means to be a worker has changed and people have become more aware of their rights.

“These people contribute their money each month with difficulty because they want a better life, but in all this time, the Social Security Office was never able to do anything to respond to these things, so we want today, 24 December, to be the beginning of change,” he said.

Sustarum said that the team intends to follow through on their policy package, and will propose moving the Social Security Fund’s investments into businesses with good governance and which are not monopolies. Although he noted that policies on social security benefits have to be discussed with the rest of the board, the team is hoping that the people will support them in pushing for their policies, including improving the pension scheme, provident funds, and the Social Security scheme’s medical fund.

Labour rights activist Thanaporn Wichan also ran as a Progressive Social Security candidate, but was disqualified because she is unemployed. Thanaporn, a former factory worker, was dismissed by her employer in 2022. She suspected that she was fired for being a union leader and filed a lawsuit with the Labour Court, which later ordered her former employer to pay her 250,000 baht in damages for unfair termination.

Thanaporn said that she appealed the decision to disqualify her from the election on the grounds that she was unfairly dismissed, but her appeal was dismissed. She will discuss with the team whether other channels of appeal are available.

The final employee representative seat was won by Prattana Phodee, president of the Thailand Government Employee Network, who won 15,080 votes.

A polling station at the Bangkok Social Security Office Area 3 in Din Daeng district.

The Social Security Board is a 20-person committee made up of government, employer, and employee representatives.  7 employer representatives and 7 employee representatives were elected on 24 December, while 6 government representatives will be appointed from the ministries of Labour, Social Development and Human Security, Interior and Public Health, and the Budget Bureau.

The Board is responsible for proposing policies on what benefits are to be given under the Social Security Scheme, a healthcare scheme all full-time employees in Thailand can be entered into by their employers. It can also make suggestions on how to manage the Social Security Fund, now worth over 2.3 million baht.

The election was originally scheduled to take place in 2015, but was postponed on order of the NCPO junta after the May 2014 military coup. 

Every Thai citizen enrolled in the Social Security Scheme for at least 6 months and who had paid contributions for 3 consecutive months before March 2023 was eligible to vote for the employee representatives. However, they were required to register to vote online, and of the 20 million eligible voters, only 854,414 registered. Only 156,870 people, or 18.36% of those who registered, turned out to vote.

The election watch network We Watch conducted a survey of voters about the election. Participants in the survey said that they would like the Social Security Office to communicate better about the election, and to see more information about each candidate and their proposed policies. They also said that everyone enrolled in the Social Security Scheme should be eligible to vote without having to register, and that migrant workers should also be eligible to vote. There should also be more polling locations.

Participants in the survey said they were not satisfied with how the election was organized, having found the process too complicated. They expect better communication from the Social Security Office in the next election.

Meanwhile, Thanaporn noted that there was only a short period for registration, which meant that many eligible voters could not register in time. The number of polling stations in some provinces also made it difficult for voters to come to the poll, such as in Saraburi, where there was only one polling station. Some factories have already closed for the New Year holiday, she said, so most workers have gone home and did not come to vote.

Labour Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn said he was disappointed by the turnout, since the Ministry of Labour was aiming for at least a 50% turnout for both employers and employees. He said that discussions are already ongoing on how to adjust the registration and voting process, as well as how to inform voters about the benefits of participating in the board elections, to increase voter turnout next time in two years.