Thai Law Siam Firm | Labour Case

                   As a foreigner here if you are an employer or an employee in a company you must follow the labour  law of Thailand. If you hire any employees you will have the chance to evaluate their performance for a period of one hundred and twenty days including weekends and holidays. During that period of time if you do not wish to have them continue to work with you and you plan to terminate them, then you will not need to pay any form of severance payment follow the labour  law of Thailand. But you are required to provide one months notice in advance to give them the time to find other work opportunities, so it is best for both parties if the day that you schedule their termination coincides with a pay day.

·      After the probation period of one hundred and twenty days is finished and they continue to be under your employ for up to one year any termination will require a one month severance payment along with one month’s notice of their termination.

·      For a period of one to three years three month’s severance payment must be made along with the mandatory one month notice.

·      Three to six years is six months’ severance and one month notice.

·      Six to ten years will require you to pay eight months of severance and one month notice and ten years or more will bring it up to ten months of severance with a one month notice. 

The only extension where this does not apply and you do not need to pay for any severance is if the employee chooses to resign or commits a serious criminal offence against the company such as fraud or embezzlement. Also if you warn them against doing something against the regulations of the company for more than two times then you will not need to pay them any severance upon termination. One other specified extension is if you are employed under a contract for a fixed period of time as an employee such as that of a private school, then you do not have the right for any severance at all follow the labour  law of Thailand but this is very special case.

If you are an employer and you wish to terminate any employee follow the labour  law of Thailand you have to do this through a written letter given to the said employee stating the reasons of termination with a severance payment or without a severance payment. This must be received acknowledged and signed by the employee in question but if they do not accept this then you may bring in a witness who is read the letter along with the employee enabling them to sign in their place, stating that the employee in question has refused to sign the letter. If you do not issue any termination letter, you will not be able to fight a case in court as they will only demand that you pay severance to the proper amount leaning in the favor of the employee. But if you do then you will only have to prove to the court that you had reason enough to terminate the employee without severance such as a criminal charge or a violation of company rules.

 Our comment: We have to confirm to you that all foreigners are treated equally under labour law of  Thailand, the same to Thai’s or people of other nationalities living here that get the same rights. It is only employees of private schools and fixed term contracts who do not have the same rights as everyone else and are treated unfairly by the labour system. At the moment we have a case like this at our firm and we are in the process of submitting a request to the Constitutional court to terminate this law and we believe that we should be successful in this process soon. I believe that if something exists that is unfair then everyone that is able should try to fix it. If you have your own case or any questions regarding in Thailand’s law please feel free to write in to us and we will answer any questions or concerns in this column.