As many as ten million workers in Thailand may lose their jobs in the next three months, if the COVID-19 pandemic drags on and if the Government does not provide timely support for businesses, according to Mr. Supant Mongkolsuthee, president of the Federation of Thai Industries.

In his capacity as head of the CCSA’s working committee on the private sector, tasked with overseeing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), Mr. Supant said that SME operators want the Government to step in immediately and shoulder 50% of the 15,000 baht monthly minimum wage, so that they will not be forced to lay millions of blue-collar workers.

He said that the SME operators will contribute 25% of the pay, while the workers forgo the rest in order to keep their jobs and the working hours will be halved to four hours a day.

This proposal, said Mr Supant, would help save about 10 million jobs if approved.

The working committee is one of the five panels, set up by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha in his capacity as CCSA chief.  Members of the five panels were today told, by Mr. Tossaporn Sirisamphan, secretary-general of the National Economic and Social Development Board, to work out measures to help companies weather the pandemic, which has wreaked havoc on businesses, big and small.

Mr. Kalin Sarasin, president of the Thai Chamber of Commerce and head of the committee tasked with studying which businesses should be allowed to resume operations, said that his panel, at the next CCSA meeting, will propose which businesses could return to work, without compromising measures in place to prevent the spread of the virus.