Thai berry pickers in Sweden and Finland have gathered in front of embassies, international organisations, and Thai government agencies to submit a petition, calling on relevant authorities to address human trafficking cases.

The Department of Special Investigation has reached an agreement to prosecute former ministers and senior executives of the Ministry of Labour for accepting bribes after they were found to be involved in sending Thai workers to be victims of human trafficking in Finland.

<div> <div>The three provinces in the restive Deep South will have the lowest minimum wage in the country, according to an announcement by the Labour Ministry. </div></div>

<div> <div>Due to the higher cost of living, a nationwide network of Thai labourers has urged the Labour Ministry to increase the national minimum wage to 360 baht per day. The rate has remained almost unchanged for five years.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>On 20 December, more than 20 labourers from the Thai Labour Reconciliation Committee (TLRC) gathered at the Ministry of Labour to read a statement demanding an increase in the national minimum wage from 300 to 360 baht per day by next year. </div></div>

<p>The&nbsp;<a href="https://www.hrw.org/asia/thailand">Thai</a>&nbsp;government should halt enforcement of a new migrant workers’ law that imposes excessive criminal penalties and has caused thousands of migrant workers to flee Thailand, Human Rights Watch said today.</p>

<p>On May Day, labour activists across Thailand assembled to call for a better welfare state and fair working conditions.</p> <p>International Workers’ Day or May Day this year saw the Rangsit and Area Labour Union travel to Pathum Thani to deliver a petition to the provincial governor. The petition mades eight demands: &nbsp;</p>

<p dir="ltr">Workers in Thailand urged the authorities to raise the minimum wage nationwide.</p> <p>On 14 September 2016, about 100 people from the Thai Labour Solidarity Committee (TLSC) and its networks submitted a petition to ML Puntrik Smiti, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Labour, <a href="http://voicelabour.org/?p=24928">voicelabour.org reported</a>.</p> <p>The workers want the minimum wage to be raised to 360 baht (about 10 USD) instead of 300 baht per day currently.</p>

<p>Thailand’s labour organisations are urging the government not to set different minimum wages by region, but to raise the current minimum wage equally nationwide for better living conditions.</p> <p>According to&nbsp;<a href="http://voicelabour.org/">Voice Labour Website</a>, on Friday, 20 November 2015, Thai Labour Solidarity Committee (TLSC) and State Enterprises Workers’ Relations Confederation (SERC) submitted a joint statement to ML Puntrik Smiti, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Labour, urging the Ministry to rethink the wage hike delay.</p>