francie

The Labor Office did not reject my claim or refuse to help, they just did not get back to me. I can confirm my contract does not state I must attend school during school breaks or holidays.

I guess I need to clarify the timeline. I went on holiday with permission early March 2020 after the school break had begun when everything was normal. I was fired in May 2020 (by email) following an exchange of emails with the school. This was of course after restrictions were introduced ( mid-March 2020: flight ban, closure of schools etc) so there is no contradiction.

Hello again, Thanks again to everyone for their posts on my issue. I would like to answer some more queries and clarify some issues though I suspect a few are trolls: What was the situation when you left? Did you abandon the students? I left early March 2020. There were no restrictions in place at that point and life was totally normal. The students had already started their school break and were returning mid-May. I had verbal permission to go on holiday as was the usual procedure followed by the other foreign teachers at the school. Although the legal requirement is to obtain written permission, this was not asked for and I consider this akin to a legal loophole exploited by the school. Does your contract state you must attend during holidays and sign in? No, It does not state this and I had permission to leave on holiday, returning mid May. I do feel the school behaved in an unprofessional, unethical and really quite disgraceful fashion. Remember this was during a pandemic, a national and global emergency. A school should have felt a duty to support their teachers at that time, not exploit it as a way to get rid of teachers. I would like to name and shame the school but of course forum rules prevent this. However, curious to know if I can report them to the Teachers Council. Do they have a role in ensuring professional standards of behaviour of schools? (This is a government school). Would welcome any advice. I intend to follow up on some suggestions made but not hopeful of success. Thanks again to everyone for your replies. Francie

Hello again, A big thank you to everyone who gave suggestions/ideas. I now want to give more detail on my problem and try to answer queries. I had been a teacher at the school for 3 years with yearly extensions. I had permission (verbal) to go on holiday during the school break from March to May 2020. My contract was due to end in September 2020. I was informed by email of the termination of my contract in June 2020 and was not given formal notice. I am owed about 150,000 baht in unpaid salary (4 months salary as the school did not reopen until 1st July 2020). I did make several attempts to return by scheduled flight but these were cancelled due to the ban. I then tried to return through the special flights arranged for stranded foreigners but the school refused to provide a letter to support my application. During my absence, I obtained legal advice from a reputable Thai firm (by email). They told me that as I did not have written permission to go on holiday, the school were legally correct to end my contract. However, in previous years, verbal permission had always been enough. I managed to return to Thailand this year when restrictions were eased and went in person to the local labor office for help. I am convinced this was the correct office to go to but still was sent to 2 other offices. I feel I got the runaround and was never contacted about my case. Hope this answers most of the queries and thanks again to everyone for their input. I do intend to follow up on some of the suggestions... Francie

Hello, I was unable to return to Thailand in 2020 due to being “locked out” by the flight ban. The school cancelled my contract and I have not been paid salary owed. I did return to Thailand recently and went to the labor office. They took some details but never got back to me. I have tried to contact the school but got no response. There is also a related issue that my old non-b visa has expired but has not been cancelled. I don't know why this is necessary but Immigration told me it needs to be done if I want another non-b visa. This required a document from the school but they refused to provide it. Anyone any suggestions how I can recover the unpaid salary and fix the visa issue? Thanks in advance, Francie