Cracking down on Bar Girls
In Pattaya the police have said they will launch a crackdown on bar fines. The bar fine is the money that punters pay to get the girls out from the beer bar or go go bar. The bars are claiming that the girl cannot work in the bar anymore since she goes home early, and someone needs to pay for it. The problem with that claim is that the girls never make more than 4000 THB a month in salary so the bar fine should then be 100 THB or something similar. Some girls do not even work in the bar. They are just freelancers, or they got bar fined already and came back. Some bars also force the girls to get bar fined otherwise they will get less money in the end of the month.
Personally, I think bar fine is between the bar and the girl and should have nothing to do with the customer. The bars are trying to control the girls because they do not really want to hang out in the bar in the first place, but they know if they don’t come or just ran away they get fined.
The problem is, that since these businesses are in the gray area, there are no regulations, no taxes, and no government protection. The girls are all in risk of getting beaten up by their pimps and bar owners at any given time if they don’t pay up. If they don’t bring in enough bar fines or drinks they get fired or in debt to the bar.
If the bar fine would go away I think it would be better for all of us (well off course not the bar owners), but I am sure they would find another way around it.
