Haris & Associates Phuket Thailand Legal Blog

According to Thai Labor Law, employers are in a superior position in relation to the employee. Thus, employees need protection from the government to ensure balance of power. Hence, the Labor Protection Act (LPA) has been set up to regulate workday, overtime and leave of employees.

The LPA states that anyone who agrees to work for an employer, like Phuket litigation lawyers, business owners or real estate brokers, for wage, regardless of his job title, is considered an employee. This includes permanent workers, part-timers, contractual laborers, probationary employees and the like. An employer, on the other hand, is someone who agrees to hire a person for work and to the employee his due wage.

Once an employer decides to hire an employee, he must notify the worker of the recommended working time, which must not exceed eight hours a day or 48 hours a week. To ensure that stipulations regarding the working time are lawful, it is wise to consult Phuket commercial law firms. But there may be exceptions for certain occupations. For example, managers with supervisory authority can work beyond eight hours without overtime. White-collar employees and professionals, on the other hand, are exempted from the working time limits and from overtime pay.

Furthermore, workers are required to consent to working beyond the normal hours, unless his work requires him to perform continuously, must leave due to an emergency or has the permission of the Ministry of Labor. Once an employee is made to work overtime, he will be paid the minimum rate of one and a half times the hourly age of a normal working day for each hour of work he renders. The employer will need to pay the employee a minimum of two times the hourly wage should he be required to work on a traditional holiday.

A rest period must be provided by the employer to the employee during a work day. The minimum would be one-hour rest, which is not counted as working time. This law prevents company owners from placing employees on “standby” mode if there is no work to be done. This, however, does not apply to restaurants, coffee shops and pubs where there are employees typically assigned to work on different shifts.

For rest days, the law states that an employee should have at least one day off per week. There will be 13 days designated as traditional holidays every year, which requires employees not to work on those days. On top of that, a worker can take advantage of personal paid leaves after his first year of employment. Aside from that, thirty days have been allotted for a worker’s sick leave per year. Should the staff member be terminated or resigned and has not used his leave credits, the employer is required to reimburse the employee for the unused days.

To be able to understand Labor Laws better, it is advisable to seek advice from a respected lawyer Phuket.