Since Kaew started her job as a Bangkok "entertainment girl" four months ago, she's never received the full salary she was promised, much less benefits like medical insurance or social security.
"I'm owed 4,000 baht [US$107] a month, but in fact I only receive about 1,500 baht," said Kaew, who goes by only her nickname to protect her privacy because she's ashamed of her profession.
But because the 22-year-old works as a bar girl amid the neon lights of one of Bangkok's most notorious red-light districts, she's never dared complain.
PHOTO: AFP
That could change as activists and members of the National Human Rights Commission try to extend labor rights to Thailand's infamous bars and nightclubs.
Some 300,000 women are believed to work in Thailand's vast nightlife business, which despite the country's reputation as a free-wheeling holiday destination, carries significant social stigma among Thais.
"They always feel that they are in a lower class compared with other people. They will not fight for themselves," said Naiyana Supapung, a member of the National Human Rights Commission.
"Their bosses do not want to fight for them either, because their businesses are seen as affecting our morals. They don't want to be questioned by society," she said.
Thailand once marketed itself as an anything-goes vacation spot, but in recent years has tried to clean up its image.
The government toughened penalties on prostitution in 1996 -- although these are rarely enforced -- and imposed closing hours on nightclubs in 2001.
But those changes have done little for the women who work in nightclubs, where activists say they labor in venues that fail to meet safety standards or provide guarantees on salaries and benefits.
Concerns over nightclub safety at have risen since a fire ripped through the Route 999 disco in a seedy part of the beach resort town of Pattaya and killed eight people.
All of those killed were working for the disco. Reports at the time said that the owners had chained the fire exits shut to prevent people from sneaking into the club.
Chantawipa Apisuk, the director of the Center for Sex Workers' Protection, said inane issues can also pose serious safety concerns -- like the decision by police in the northern city of Chiang Mai to ban poles for dancing in strip clubs.
Dancers in Chiang Mai now have to use handstraps hanging from the ceiling, but Chantawipa said that has raised the risk of injuries for women dancing in heels on countertops.
Other bars provide no toilets for their staff, or charge them fees to use the bathrooms.
The women working in the clubs are often intimidated into silence because bar owners are required by law to fingerprint them when they take their jobs, using the same forms that police do when processing suspects in a crime, she said.
That practice intimidates the women working there, who fear they could be easily prosecuted if they fail to obey their bosses, Chantawipa said.
And since many of the women are paid under the table, they have little recourse if they are underpaid, much less the right to seek benefits like health insurance.
"Workers who work in the entertainment business do not count as employees, so they are not covered by labor laws," Chantawipa said.
"They should be treated the same as any company's employees -- they also work eight hours a day," she said.
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