Working in Thailand: How to Ditch the Desk, Board the Flight, and Land the Job

In December 2013, two young Irish teachers, Marie Starr and James O’Neill, were passing through immigration at Bangkok’s Suvharnabhumi Airport, en route home for Christmas. ⁵⁸ Although working in Myanmar at the time, it was familiar territory for the couple. One year earlier they had been working in Thailand, on behalf of a teaching agency, Teach to Travel, based in Lopburi. Unbeknownst to them, they would end up spending a lot more time in Thailand in the forthcoming weeks than they had anticipated.

Minutes after passing through immigration, they were stopped by a peculiarly agitated security guard and informed that there was a problem with their passports. Confused and frightened, the young couple were escorted to a holding cell in the airport. A few hours later, a police officer arrived and informed them that they were under arrest for possessing false visa stamps.

After spending the night in a cramped cell at the airport, the couple were fingerprinted and escorted by jeep to a nearby court facility. Bail was denied, and the still baffled and now almost certainly terrified couple were remanded in Samut Prakan Prison.

Conditions in the prison were grim. O’Neill slept in a five meter by eight meter cell, which he shared with an appalling 77 other men. Starr, in a separate communal cell for female inmates, was stripped of almost all her possessions and held in a room with no mats to sleep on and blankets that had to be shared with the other inmates. Communication with the outside world was scarce.

On Christmas Day, the couple met with their assigned Thai lawyer, who informed them that he was working on reducing their current three-year sentence to one-year. The entire sequence of events must have felt Kafkaesque—just a few days earlier, the couple had been looking forward to spending Christmas with family and friends on a crisp winter’s day in Ireland. Now they were facing down a potential three years in a sweaty, overcrowded prison cell halfway round the world for a crime that they weren’t even sure they had committed.

Two weeks later, a new lawyer assigned to the couple made the breakthrough that would see them released. The owner of Teach to Travel, a man named Santipot Nakduang, had recently been arrested in Lopburi. His crime?

The pieces began to fall into place. During their time at Teach to Travel, Starr and O’Neill had entrusted their passports to Santipot, who had ensured them that he would acquire the business visas necessary for working in the Kingdom—an extremely common practice in Thai workplaces. The process of acquiring a visa and work permit is long, complicated and time-consuming, involving a lot of wasted man hours spent in various government offices. Santipot—it turned out—had decided to save some of those man hours by creating his own replica visa stamps for the couple. “The Thai visa process is an over complicated process,” Santipot told an Irish newspaper shortly after his arrest in 2013. “Sometimes agencies like mine bend the rules to try to simplify matters and speed things up.” ⁵⁹

After some frantic dialogue with the Thai authorities, Starr and O’Neill were cleared of all charges and released. Altogether, they had spent twenty days in a Thai prison cell.

The story of Marie Starr and James O’Neill is admittedly unusual. However, it reveals a few issues that practically everyone who has spent time working in Thailand will have had experience with—labyrinthine bureaucracy, excessive paperwork and the frequent corner-cutting that occurs to deal with it.

Anyone who has ever been involved with the work permit and visa process in Thailand will be aware of what an often bafflingly complicated process it is. A standard application for a Thai work permit is around the thickness of a slim book, rammed full of photocopies of passport pages, forms, and various official-looking stamped documents. It is common for businesses that employ a large number of foreigners to have a member of staff working full-time solely on visa and work permit issues.

Getting information about the visa application is a process in and of itself. Laws and regulations change on a frequent basis. Sometimes they’re enforced, sometimes they’re not. One immigration officer may insist on a certain document, and another will give you a weary look before tossing the same document in the bin.

As immigration and labor law is in a seemingly perpetual state of flux in Thailand, this section can really only supply a very basic overview, lest it become outdated the moment it’s published. Instead of getting into specifics, we’ll deal with some of the more commonplace terms bandied around regarding immigration and labor law in Thailand, as well as offer some general advice on navigating the system as best as possible. We’ll also provide the contact information of some useful organizations and blogs/news sites to allow you to keep abreast with all the latest changes.

There are several visas available for foreigners entering the Kingdom. Most can be acquired at an embassy or consulate in your home country or a neighboring country beforehand—indeed, some (such as the new six-month tourist visa) can only be acquired in your home country. In some cases it’s possible to change your visa in-country, e.g from a tourist visa to a Non-B.

Although the requirements for each visa differ, there are a few things that recur again and again and for which it is therefore useful to keep a steady supply to hand. Almost all visa categories besides the Visa Exempt require a recent passport photo—officially 4 x 6cm, although the size requirement is rarely enforced provided the picture is clear enough. A photocopy of your passport photo page is also extremely common, as are copies of your current or recent Thai visas if you’re already in (or have recently been to) Thailand.

As this book is aimed at those seeking work in Thailand, it makes sense to divide the visa categories into two groups: Work Permitted and Work Non-Permitted. We’ve decided not to include a few other, more technical visas such as the Thailand Elite, as it is not possible to upgrade it to a work visa. Note that a work permit is still required if you hold a work-permitted visa, even under Permanent Residency status.

Visa Exempt—Technically not a visa at all, this stamp allows the bearer to stay in Thailand for a length of time (currently 30 days for most applicable nationalities, although it has been known to change) without having to go through the usual visa procedures. At present, visa exempt is available for the citizens of around 50 nations, a full list of which can be found at www.thailandstarterkit.com/tools-work. These visas (or not visas) can be extended for another 30 days at any immigration office.

Once upon a time, border officials were fairly profligate with these visa exemptions, leading to the infamous visa runners—foreigners working illegally in Thailand by simply heading to the nearest border once every 30 to 60 days, crossing over and immediately re-entering the country to acquire another 30 days. Visa runs were such a common method of remaining in the country long-term that an entire cottage industry sprang up (and continues to operate, albeit in a little more subdued manner) around it. Rules were so lax at one point that visa runners did not even have to make the run themselves, and could instead pay an agent to make the trip for them, cross over, get the stamp and return it to Bangkok or Pattaya, where the wily expat would be no doubt a little worse for wear at a local hostelry.

Authorities have since cottoned on to this, and as of 2014 have been attempting to close this loophole with varying degrees of success. Presently, the official line is that only two visa exempts are permitted per passport per year at land crossings (e.g into Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia or Myanmar). However, in reality enforcement varies. There are no restrictions on visa exemptions if you arrive by plane.

You’ll need a valid passport with at least six months remaining in order to qualify for a visa exempt. You are also expected to hold evidence of ongoing travel within the next 30 days (e.g a plane ticket home/to another country). Note that enforcement of the latter requirement has been increasing a great deal lately, and some airlines will not let you board without evidence of ongoing travel. Another official requirement is that you should be able to provide evidence of funds of at least 20,000 baht per person in cash. For a long time the latter rule was rarely enforced, although recent reports suggest that enforcement has been increasing. Note that the 20,000 baht must be in cash only, and should be on your person when processing your application—immigration officials do not accept bank statements, and some border crossers have alleged that they were not permitted to use an ATM to withdraw money once they were at the official’s window.

Obviously working on a visa exempt is highly illegal, and the penalties can be eye-wateringly severe if you are unfortunate enough to be caught (as of 2017, a maximum jail sentence of five years and/or a 100,000 baht fine). It is possible to convert a visa exempt into a Non-B or Non-O visa at several (though not all) immigration offices across Thailand, provided that there are at least 15 days remaining on the visa. This makes it a viable option for entering the country in order to seek work, as your visa exempt can be changed into a legitimate work visa without having to leave the country.

Visa On Arrival (VOA)—For many countries that do not qualify for the Visa Exemption mentioned above, there is the Visa On Arrival (VOA) option. Like the Visa Exemption, Visa On Arrival can be attained upon arriving at any of Thailand’s international airports, and most land borders.

Acquiring a VOA is a tad more complicated than the breezy Visa Exemption process. Applicants are required to fill out a form and hand over a 4x6cm passport photo, plus a 1000 baht application fee. In addition to this, you must also fulfill the requirements for the Visa Exemption (proof of funds/ongoing travel). Like the visa exempt, the VOA can be converted into a work visa, provided there are at least 15 days remaining on the visa. However, unlike the visa exempt, the VOA can not be extended within the Kingdom, so a border run is necessary if you’ve got less than 15 days remaining on your visa.

A full list of countries which currently qualify for Visa On Arrival can be found at www.thailandstarterkit.com/tools-work.

Tourist Visa—If you do not have a job lined up in Thailand already, acquiring a Tourist Visa in advance is a sensible move. Like the previous two visas, tourist visas can be converted to work visas in-country—again, providing there are at least 15 days remaining. At present, there are two types of Tourist Visa available:

The Single Entry Tourist Visa (SETV) is the classic tourist visa, providing 60 days in Thailand, plus the option of extending for another 30 days for a small fee, giving you a total of 90 days in the Kingdom. This gives you plenty of time to find and secure a job and some nice cushion-time for sightseeing to boot.

SETV’s can be applied for at any Thai Embassy or Consulate—indeed, some embassies in Thailand’s neighboring countries (Vientiane in Laos, Penang in Malaysia) seem to spend most of their time dealing with just that. You’ll need two passport photos, a copy of your passport’s photo page (plus anything else that might pique the immigration officers’ interest), a completed visa application form, and a visa fee of $30 (1000 baht). Many consulates/embassies also require proof of ongoing travel. Less commonly, you may need to provide evidence of funds equivalent to 20,000 baht (40,000 baht per family).

The Multiple Entry Tourist Visa (METV) replaced the old double-entry/triple-entry visas of yesteryear that allowed tourists to stay long-term in the country. The METV gives you six months in the Kingdom, separated into chunks of 60 days. When each 60 day chunk is up, you can either hop across the border and get another 60 days, or head to an immigration office and pay 1900 baht for an extra 30 days (rather like the SETV).

The restrictions for getting an METV are much tougher than the Single Entry. You can only apply in a country in which you are either a citizen or hold permanent residency. You must provide proof of employment and/or income. More shockingly, the proof of funds requirement has shot up from a manageable 20,000 baht to an eye-watering 200,000 baht (double that for families)—for which you must provide evidence of possessing in your bank account for six months prior to applying for the visa.

Besides these stringent requirements, the visa application process is almost identical to that of the SETV. You’ll need to provide two passport photos, a photocopy of your passport photo page, and a completed application form, plus a fee that varies by country (but usually works out at around $200).

Personally speaking, we believe that it’s not necessary to go to the trouble and expense of the METV if you’re planning on working in Thailand—the 90 days that the SETV provides is more than enough time to get settled in and find work, and acquiring it is a lot less stressful. However, if you’re hellbent on getting an METV, you can find an excellent article on visas at “An In-depth Guide to Thailand Visas” on Thailand Starter Kit’s website.

Non-Immigrant OA (Retirement Visa)—As the name suggests, this is a visa available to those who wish to retire in Thailand. You must be aged 50 or over to qualify, and be able to provide proof of a security deposit of at least 800,000 baht in a Thai bank account for at least two months prior to applying. As this visa is aimed at retirees, it is not possible to work on a retirement visa.

Non-Immigrant B—This is the standard business visa, which you’ll more than likely be applying for if you’re working in Thailand for the first time and you don’t have any other connections to the country (e.g marriage). According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’s website, it covers working, conducting business and investment activities. At present, you can apply for either a Single Entry (for a fee of 2000 baht) or Multiple-Entry (5000 baht).

Applying for the visa is a complicated and often confusing process. Some of the documents required, in addition to the usual passport/passport photo/application form, include:

business registration and business license
list of shareholders
company profile
details of business operation
map indicating location of the company
balance sheet, statement of Income Tax and Business Tax (Por Ngor Dor 50 and Por Ngor Dor 30) of the latest year
value-added tax registration (Por Por 20)

As was mentioned above, any organization worth their salt will generally have either a member of staff dedicated to dealing with this colossal mountain of paperwork, or will outsource the process to a legal firm, so your role in all this will be to sign whatever they hand you and to wait patiently at immigration when the process is over to pick up your stamp.

Initially the Non-B entitles you to 90 days in Thailand, during which the even more Kafkaesque process of applying for a work permit can be completed. Note that technically in the eyes of the law it is illegal to work during this time. However, due to the impracticality of keeping staff sitting around for the X-many months the whole application process can take, many employers ignore this rule.

Once you’ve acquired a W.P, you can return to Immigration and they’ll grant you a shiny new Non-B which lasts for a full year (or until the end of your contract/work permit expiry date).

A full list of requirements can be found at the MFA’s website, which is available at www.thailandstarterkit.com/tools-work.

Non-Immigrant O—This is the spousal visa, issued to those with either a Thai partner or a partner currently living and working in Thailand. It is possible to apply for a Work Permit if you hold a Non-O visa.

Although the process of applying for a Non-O is not quite as harrowing as the Non-B, there are still a couple of stages at which many applicants fall down. In addition to the usual passport/photo/application form, applicants for the Non-O also require a marriage certificate and some supporting documents from the spouse (e.g Thai ID card). They must also show evidence of a security deposit of at least 400,000 baht, placed in a Thai bank account for at least two months prior to the visa application, and a monthly income of at least 40,000 baht.

It is this financial requirement that usually trips up many people intending to apply for a Non-O visa, especially down-on-their-luck teachers. Foreigners who lack the funds generally opt for a Non-B visa in order to stay in Thailand long-term instead.

Education Visa (ED)—Officially, the Education Visa is provided for those studying in Thailand—university students and what not. It provides applicants with a full year’s stay in the Kingdom for a mere 1000 baht (3,800 baht for multiple entries). Needless to say, such a generous offer has been quickly exploited by those keen to stay in the Kingdom without going through the official rigmarole required of the usual long-stay visas, and it wasn’t long before Thai language schools across the country found their enrollment lists unusually full—particularly following the crackdown on visa runners. Thai authorities soon cottoned on to the scam, and one can expect to receive a quick pop quiz on their Thai language skills from immigration officials if they insist on going down this route these days.

To apply for an ED visa, you’ll need the usual passport with more than six months validity, an application form and passport photo, plus a recommendation letter addressed to the consulate/embassy and a letter of acceptance from the institute you plan on studying at. If you’re currently studying, you’ll also need a copy of your academic record and student ID. If successful, your ED visa will entitle you to 90 days straight in Thailand, which can then be extended repeatedly for up to a year.

Although not strictly a work visa, it is possible to obtain a work permit using an ED visa. ⁶⁰ However, due to the academic requirements of the visa (namely, that you must be studying for at least 15 - 20 hours per week), you’ll be restricted to part-time or internship work only.

Permanent Residency—Holding Permanent Residency in Thailand has a lot of advantages. You can stay in Thailand long-term, without having to apply for an extension of stay as you would on other visas. You can legally have your name on a house registration document, or purchase a condominium without making a bank transfer from abroad. You are also eligible to become a director of a Thai public company, and applying for a work permit is significantly easier.

The downside is that the application process for permanent residency is prohibitively complicated. You must have had a Thai Non-Immigrant visa for three years prior to applying (as in, the same visa with three consecutive yearly extensions). You must fit into one of a few categories, namely Investment (you have invested at least 3,000,000 baht to 10,000,000 baht in Thailand), Working/Business, Family (as in you’re married to a Thai citizen and/or supporting a family) or Expert/Academic. Just 100 PR’s are given out per year per country, so competition is often fierce.

Unlike Thai citizenship, you must still apply for a re-entry permit every time you leave Thailand, and you are still restricted from applying for the jobs mentioned back in Chapter One (so say goodbye to that lifelong plan of working in a 7/11). However, the PR never expires unless revoked by an immigration official.

90-day Checks—One of the more tiresome requirements of holding a long-stay Thai visa is the need to report at a police station or immigration office every 90 days (with a 7 day window either side) to confirm your current status—the dreaded 90-day check-in. Across the land, many foreign workers must take a half-day to a full day off work to trudge to the nearest office (which may be several hours’ drive away, depending on location) to sign a piece of paper confirming that yes, they’re still here and no, they haven’t quit their job to join the circus or whatever.

Thankfully the authorities in charge of the 90-day check do seem to appreciate the fact that it can be a time-swallowing drain on productivity, and there are a few other options available besides showing up in person. You can send your notification via post to your local immigration office (addresses for Bangkok and Chiang Mai are included in this book under the Useful Contact Details header below), including a completed TM47 Form, the original last receipt of notification (you should keep a copy for yourself), copies of your passport photo pages, visa, last entry stamp and departure card, and a return envelope with a 10 baht stamp attached. Inform immigration staff that you wish to apply for a postal notification when extending your visa after acquiring your work permit. You can also authorize a person to do your 90-day check on your behalf—many large organizations in Thailand will usually have a member of staff who can do it for you. There was also (briefly) the option to complete your 90-day check online, but it was notoriously flaky and seems to have been scrapped as of 2017.

Note that the 90 days begins from your last entry into Thailand, so if you travel outside of the Kingdom a lot you may never have to do it in the first place.

Re-entry Permits—If you plan on leaving Thailand at any point while under a long-stay visa—even permanent residency—you need to apply for a re-entry permit. Again, this can be a tedious and time-consuming process, requiring another potential full day at immigration, but it’s worth doing—if you leave the country without one, your visa is revoked and you’ll have to start over again.

Applying for a re-entry permit is fairly straightforward. You can apply at any immigration office, or—more conveniently—just past passport control at Don Muang or Suvharnabhumi Airport. You’ll need a completed TM8 form, a passport photo, and a photocopy of your passport photo page and current visa, plus the correct fee (currently 1000 baht for a single re-entry and 3000 baht for multiple re-entries).

Note that the immigration counters at both airports are open from 5am till midnight, so if you have an early morning flight you’ll need to acquire a re-entry permit from an immigration office in advance.

It can’t be stressed enough: it is illegal to work in Thailand without a work permit.

Recently the government pushed through a set of draconian new laws that make working without a work permit punishable by a fine ranging from 2000 baht to 100,000 baht and a potential prison sentence of five years, whilst employers who hire workers without work permits will be fined a whopping 400,000 baht to 800,000 baht per worker. ⁶¹ Although the government later backtracked on the more severe punishments, the fact remains that working illegally is currently being treated very seriously by the Thai authorities.

All of which is somewhat ironic, as working without a work permit is extremely commonplace in Thailand, even at otherwise by-the-book large companies. Much of it is simply practical. It takes a lot of time to process a work permit, and many employers simply do not have the time or resources to keep members of staff out of the workplace during that time—plus the prospect of spending one’s first few months in a new job at home without pay isn’t particularly appealing to many employees. What counts as work to Thai authorities is also maddeningly vague. Some examples of things considered work by Thai authorities have included selling things on eBay, volunteering in the aftermath of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, ⁶² and sitting on the juristic board of a condominium. ⁶³

The work permit itself is a slim blue book, about the size of a passport, with a gold embossed cover. Inside it states your position, occupation/job description and the organization you are currently working for in Thailand. If you wish to work at a different company, or even take up a different role in the same company, you need to apply for a brand new work permit.

Contrary to what many people believe, it is possible to work more than one job at the same time using the same work permit. There are a number of blank pages within the work permit which are intended for that very purpose. However, the first employer (as in, the one specified in the work permit) must give their consent to have the second employer noted within the work permit—which, as you might expect, is a hard-sell for many employers. You are also still restricted to jobs which are permitted for non-Thais only.

The first step in applying for a work permit is to acquire one of the work-permitted visas mentioned in the previous section (most commonly the Non-Immigrant B). Once that’s been done, you (or more likely your employer) can begin the application process.

As stated above, most organizations will handle the bulk of this paperwork for you, especially the various Phors and Ngors. The fee for the work permit varies depending on length of contract, and is between 750 baht to 3,000 baht (more details can be found at www.thailandstarterkit.com/tools-work).

Once the application has been handed in at your local branch of the Labour Department, it usually takes around seven days to fully process. You’ll be handed a receipt informing you of when to arrive to pick up your shiny new work permit. On that fateful day, you must show up at the Labour Department in person with your passport and sign the photo page in the presence of Labour Department staff. They’ll stamp it, and out you walk a fully paid-up, legal member of the Thai workforce. Once you have your work permit, you can return to immigration and have them extend the length of your visa to a full year. Your work permit will last you for the duration of your contract.

Note that once you have your work permit, it is a legal requirement that it be with you at all times while at work. While admittedly rare, spot inspections by immigration officers have occurred in the past. Some employers get around this by keeping their employee’s work permits at work for them—whether or not you are comfortable with that arrangement is of course your decision.

One additional requirement for those wishing to apply for a work permit to teach in Thailand is a teaching license. By Thai law, all teachers at schools, be they private or government, must possess a teaching license, administered by the Teacher’s Council of Thailand (also known as Khurusapha in Thai). One stipulation of this teaching license is that the applicant must hold a recognized postgraduate teaching qualification, such as an MEd or PGCE.

Of course, the authorities in Thailand are fully aware that recruiting fully-qualified, MEd/PGCE-holding foreigners in most Thai government schools—at a comparatively low salary rate to what they could expect to make in their own countries—is always going to be a hard sell, and so they introduced the Waiver system, whereby a teacher with a standard college undergraduate degree in any subject can be offered a waiver from the TCT in lieu of a teaching license, which then enables them to qualify for a work permit.

Each waiver entitles a teacher to work at one school for up to two years. If they happen to leave that job before those two years are up, the waiver is lost. A teacher can receive up to three waivers in succession before the TCT stops issuing them. The upshot of this is that non-qualified teachers essentially have a six-year cap on working as teachers in Thailand (and potentially significantly less if they change jobs before their waivers are out).

Over the years the TCT have introduced a number of routes to acquiring the coveted teaching license. These have ranged from the fairly sensible to the positively harebrained. Currently the most dependable route is to complete one of the online postgraduate teaching certificates offered by some Western institutes, such as the British Nottingham University’s PGCEi or the American Framingham State University’s MEd programs.

More information about the teaching license can be found on the TCT’s website.

A common refrain among the more cynical expats in Thailand is that most Thai contracts are not worth the paper they’re written on. This isn’t strictly true—as in most countries, an employment contract still holds legal weight here.

However, Thai law does provide a certain amount of leeway when it comes to employment contracts. A contract can be either written or verbal. It can cover a fixed period of time, or a non-defined period of time. Generally, as long as the contract does not cover illegal or immoral activities, it will be accepted in the eyes of Thai law.

There are some legal necessities. Much like elsewhere in the world, the employee has a duty to render a service and the employer has a duty to pay renumeration for those services. Renumeration must be paid on a regular fixed schedule (daily/weekly/monthly or after the service has been completed). If an employee is dismissed through no fault of their own, the employee is entitled to severance pay (which is explored in greater detail in the final chapter).

Although the Ministry of Employment only recognizes Thai-language contracts, most legal firms recommend that foreign workers be provided with an English-language version of the same contract to avoid disputes later down the line. Chances are as a foreign worker in Thailand this will be the contract you sign. Your contract should be reviewed on an annual basis to ensure that it accurately reflects your current position in the company.

The rights of employees in Thailand, and the duties of employers, are currently outlined in the Labour Protection Act of 1998 (B.E.2541). The act covers things like working hours, holidays, notice, overtime, sick pay, summary dismissal, severance pay and notice, among others. The Act covers both Thai citizens and foreign workers—in short, anyone drawing a salary in Thailand. In addition to this, further specific rules for non-Thai employees are covered by the Foreign Employment Act (1978) and the amended Foreign Employment Act of 2008.

This is, of course, a huge topic, and one that could potentially fill up an entire book in and of itself. We only have space here to cover the barest of bare essentials of Thai labor law. For the specifics of the Foreign Employment Act, you can Thailand Law Online for the original 1978 act and the 2008 amendment.

Renumeration—The Labour Protection Act states that “Wages must be paid of not less than the minimum wage rate.” Although technically there is no minimum wage set by law for foreign workers, there is a schedule of different monthly salaries that must be declared in order to qualify for an extension of stay after securing your work permit—essentially making it a de facto minimum wage. The minimum wages vary by country/region as follows:

• Countries in Europe (except Russia and eastern Europe), Australia, New Zealand,

• Countries in Africa (except South Africa), Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam

Leave and Sick Leave—You are entitled to sick leave for the duration of your illness. Employers are entitled to request a doctor’s note from “a first class physician or an official medical establishment,” according to the Labour Protection Act, if your sick leave lasts 3 days or longer. It should be noted that persistent absenteeism is considered grounds for dismissal, so if you do get struck down with a particularly persistent case of the lurgee, ensure you get a doctor’s note. You are also entitled to business leave and leave for training, however the Act does not specify how many days you are entitled to—this is at the discretion of your employer, and is something that should be hashed out in the contract stages.

Overtime—The LPA defines a normal working week as not exceeding 8 hours per day, and less than 48 hours per week. Needless to say, this is one of the more neglected aspects of the law—it is extremely common for Thai employees to pull 10-hour working days or longer. The reasoning behind this is that the Act also contains a law stipulating that employers are within their rights to ask their staff to work overtime (with their prior consent) for up to 36 hours a week. Overtime pay is clarified as being 1.5 times the hourly wage rate, and 2 times the hourly rate if working on a holiday.

Holidays and Rest Periods—You are entitled to a rest period of a minimum of one hour for every five hours of consecutive work. The rest period does not count as work time (so employees should not be put on standby during that period). You are also entitled to at least one day off per week, plus thirteen days per year as traditional holidays—however, exactly when those days off are assigned is at the employer’s discretion (especially in fields which get most of their custom during the holiday periods, such as retail and the catering business). After the first year of employment, you are entitled to six paid personal leave days, which if unused can be carried forward for a maximum of two years. If you are terminated before using your sick days, you are entitled to be reimbursed for the unused days.

Grounds for Dismissal—Thai law recognizes gross misconduct, willful neglect of lawful commands from the employer, and chronic (more than three consecutive working days) absenteeism (without a doctor’s note) as grounds for dismissal, among others. At least one warning letter is required before the employee can be dismissed. ⁶⁴ What your employer considers reasonable grounds for dismissal is again something that should be hashed out in your contract beforehand.

Severance Pay—Severance pay should be paid to an employee who is dismissed through no fault of their own. The right to and amount is determined by the length of employment, as clarified in great detail in the Labour Protection Act. Very briefly, you are entitled to a one-off payment equivalent to a set number of days worked at your last salary rate. These are grouped into sets of thirty—so, for example, an employee who has worked at a company for between one hundred and twenty days to a year is entitled to thirty days wages, an employee who has worked for an uninterrupted period of between one to three years is entitled to ninety days pay, and so on.

It should be noted that severance pay is not owed if the contract comes to a natural end (e.g if it covers a temporary period of time). For this reason, it is common practice for many companies which hire foreigners—especially schools—to offer contracts on an annual basis. This also has the added benefit of reducing the amount of severance pay owed in cases of unfair dismissal. More information on what happens in cases of dismissal can be found in the Leaving section. ⁶⁵

Some employers in Thailand have been known to deduct a security deposit from their employees. In many cases, a small sum is taken out of the employee’s wages for a set number of months until an agreed-upon figure is reached, which is then held on to by the employer as security against the employee leaving the job before their contract expires. On expiration of the contract, the deposit is (with any luck) paid back in the form of a leaving bonus. Less commonly, an employer will ask for a set sum of money (say 30,000 baht) from the employee upfront as a security deposit.

From the employer’s perspective, this makes good sense. Bailing out on one’s job with no notice is depressingly common in Thailand, and pursuing legal options is often too costly and time-consuming for most employers to bother with.

It should be pointed out that this is not strictly legal. Under Section 10 of the Labour Protection Act of 1998 (B.E.2541), an employer “shall be prohibited from demanding or receiving from an Employee a security deposit for work or a security deposit for damage to work regardless of money, other property or suretyship by person,” with the exception of positions in which the employee would be in charge of money or property belonging to the employer (e.g a hire car).

However, it has become such widespread practice that in August 2017 the Department of Labor Protection and Welfare had to sternly remind employers that the practice was, in fact, illegal, with penalties for the employer ranging from either six month’s imprisonment, a fine of up to 100,000 baht, or both. ⁶⁶

If you have the misfortune to be working under one of these maverick employers, check your contract before handing in your notice. Whether or not you are still entitled to your leaving bonus is largely at the discretion of the employer. However, most will generally acquiesce, provided you hand in your notice in good time.

Arriving