Plea for fairness in “spa wars’

PHUKET CITY: The Chairman of the Phuket Spa Business Club (PSBC) has called for spas to work together to train staff rather than poaching employees from one another.

Pakin Raktae-Ngam said that poaching was not a problem within the club. But club members, and other smaller spas that are not members, were having problems with spas belonging to large chains, which were luring away trained staff.

Phuket is the first place in Thailand to issue certificates to spa therapists, according to K. Pakin. The number of spas on the island has increased greatly in recent years, and so has the competition for trained, qualified staff.

Therapists could not be blamed for accepting job offers with higher pay and better benefits, said K. Pakin.

However, he said, “It is not justifiable to take staff like this … It’s as if we plant the coffee trees, harvest the beans, blend them and roast them, then someone else takes all the benefit when we bring the coffee to market.

“If [the big spas] need to build teams, we should do it together.”