Charoen Pokphand Foods Public Company Limited or “CPF” has been aware and committed to the fair and equal treatment of both Thai and foreign personnel on labor administration. CPF is adhered to the international labor administration practice based on human rights principle and stand firm on the anti-human trafficking and slave labor policy to ensure that all foreign and Thai employees are equally treated.
Mr. Preecha Thanasukarn, CPF’s Senior Vice President, HR Global Excellence, said CPF’s set of policies on labor administration included the policy on human rights, policy on employment and labor administration, policy on foreign worker employment, policy on diversity and inclusion management, policy on non-discrimination and violation. All of these policies are in line with the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Labor Organization (ILO) Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.
The Company will only recruit foreign worker under the direct hire basis and responsible for hired worker on the recruitment related expenses born at the source country and Thailand i.e. visa application/processing fee, work permit fee, visa extension cost, health check cost (Thailand), transportation cost from border to working place etc. On the compensation and benefits, the direct employed foreign worker is eligible to fair and equal compensation and benefits against Thai worker at the same work level.
Mr. Sawang Suksri, CPF’s Senior Vice President, Human Resource, meanwhile said in order to effectively manage foreign workers according to the human rights principle all the company’s foreign workers are directly hired. CPF currently employs 5,000 foreign workers, 4,100 out of which are Cambodians and the remaining 900 workers are Myanmar people. Foreign workers are working in chicken processing plants, pork processing plants and aquatic animal processing plants located in various locations. All the foreign workers are equally treated against Thai workers i.e. wages at not less than the minimum wage as per the law, free transportation, accident insurance coverage as well as the access to social welfare benefits as per the law i.e. social security, workmen’s compensation fund. The company also shoulder the recruitment related expenses from the source country.
Mr. Sawang added that the direct hiring of foreign workers enable the Company to effectively look after, enhance the skill and quality of life of all the foreign workers at the same standard as Thai workers. Moreover the Company has provided the skill development opportunity to foreign workers for the progress on career path and annual wage raise. On the quality of life, the Company has setup the labor relation team to closely attend on the foreign workers. From the survey, it was found that foreign employees are contended to work with us and there are many more who expressed their willingness to work with the Company.
‘From the policy introduced by CPF in the past especially the direct hiring of foreign workers, it is certain that the Company is 100 % free from the forced labor problem on labor administration. And because of the Sustainable Sourcing Policy, the Company is ready to pass on the foreign worker employment standard to the business partners so they can collectively help to raise the labor administration standards in the food industry as a whole for international recognition’, Mr. Preecha said.
As CPF is aware and acknowledge the importance of labor administration standard upgrading, the Company apart from the said policy, is also apply the Thai Labor-Standard: TLS 8001 on the labor administration in CPF plants and pass on the standards to the business partners under the Sustainable Sourcing Policy. In addition the Company has promoted the standard on diversity acceptance with no prejudice to skin color, race or religion to be the corporate code of conduct. Several campaigns were launched by HR Department to promote the understanding among the workers from different nationalities i.e. event to build the better relationship between Myanmar and Thai workers as well as other nationalities i.e. Lao or Cambodia.
The Company also provides language learning programs for plant manager to learn Myanmar language so that they can communication with the subordinates. On the other hand, to be fair and equal, Thai language course is provided to Myanmar workers. The foreign workers are also allowed to send the representative to sit in the welfare committee as the member.
