The National Legislative Assembly approved a resolution for the new draft Labor Protection Act (Amendment) on 14 December 2018. The amendment to the LPA is expected to be published soon and will come into effect within 30 days from the publication date in the Royal Gazette. The law is expected to take effect in March 2019. Overall, this amendment grants further benefits and provides more clarity to employee entitlements. Below is a summary of the key changes:
(1) If the employer fails to issue notice in advance of dismissal, the employer is required to pay the dismissed employee wages from the date of dismissal to the effective dismissal date if the dismissal notice had been served as legally required.
(2) A new type of mandatory paid leave will be introduced, i.e., 3 working days per year of leave for necessary business. Prior to this change, personal business leave depended on the agreement between the employer and the employee.
(3) Increased maternity leave from 90 days to 98 days with mandatorily paid maternity leave is still limited to 45 days.
(4) Additional severance pay rate for an employee working for an uninterrupted period of more than 10 years but less than 20 years, which is the amount equivalent to 400 days of the last wage (approximately 13.3 months).
(5) All types of remunerations from works (other than wages) must be paid at least once a month and in case of termination, the remunerations must be paid within 3 days from the date of dismissal. Prior to this amendment, there was no specified due date for this type of entitlements.
(6) Wage payment during the suspension of business by the employer must be paid at the work location (or otherwise agreed by the employee) and must be paid at least once a month. Previously, there was no specified due date or payment location for this type of entitlements.
(7) In case of workplace relocation, the employer is required to post a notice of relocation for a period of not less than 30 days. Such notice must be clearly visible and with clear information such that the employees can understand the details of the new location and need to relocate.
If special severance pay must be paid (i.e., when the employee serves to the employer a written notice stating that the relocation significantly affects the ordinary course of life of the employees and the employee refuses to relocate), the employer must pay special severance pay (in the amount equal to normal severance pay) within 7 days from the employment termination date.
The employer has the right to appeal the reasons invoked by the employee not to work at a new workplace location to the labor welfare commission at Ministry of Labor within 30 days from the date of receipt of the written notice from the employee of his/her intention not to work at the new location.
(8) The labor inspector will no longer issue a letter requesting the employer to submit the report on working conditions. All employers having more than 10 employees must submit the report to the Labor Inspector by the end of January every year. Failure to do so will result in employers being liable to a fine of up to THB 20,000.
DFDL Contact
Kraisorn Rueangkul
Partner, DFDL Thailand
Kraisorn@dfdl.com
The information provided here is for information purposes only and is not intended to constitute legal advice. Legal advice should be obtained from qualified legal counsel for all specific situations.
