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Is is Thai law that forbids family members working together?

Mike West
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elviajero Ruby Member

elviajero

Posted
Posted

There is no law forbidding family members working together. Companies can choose to employ, or not employ, whoever they want.

dotpoom Gold Member

dotpoom

Posted
Posted

Interesting question. My first reaction was.....if that were the case...90% of Thai restaurants would be breaking the law, mostly family members staff.

   Then I remembered about a strange situation I heard from a man that lived in my building about 15 yrs. ago. He was Thai, he emmigrated to the USA in his youth and worked there for 33 years.He came back to retire in Thailand, bought a house with the assistance of his brother (brother got the Lawyer etc). Turned out that the brother then swindled him out of all he had. He had also told me that he had another brother who was the boss of a very well known Multinational  here in Thailand We all pass them at least 20 times a day on the Soi's. Well then I said to him, your problems are solved...get one of your brother's Franchises and set up a small business...."Cannot" he said..."Why"..I asked..."I am family, we have the same name" he said.

I didn't understand why being family made any difference but even if it did I said...."Having the same name doesen't necessarly mean you are relatives ( same family)...."In Thailand it does".  he said. " We'er not the same as Farangs where different families can have the same surname ?

connda Star Member

connda

Posted
Posted

Family businesses: Sort of counter productive to have a law inhibiting that.

But what your hinting at I think is Nepotism. 
In a private company, it's up to the company as to what their policy is regarding nepotism.
In governments, there should be laws on the books that suppresses nepotism, but in reality given the propensity of governments to be as corrupt as any criminal organization, nepotism laws are generally overlooked by those with enough power to say, own 30 million THB worth of watches without declaring them as defined by law, and then suffer no consequences.

 

scorecard Star Member

scorecard

Posted
Posted (edited)
3 hours ago, Colabamumbai said:

It might be a good idea though, less nepotism.

 

Working in Thailand as a management consultant for many years I'm aware of both scenarios:

 

- Employ family because it's nice.

 

- Don't employ family because there's a good chance you lose proper control of business decisions, behaviors develop which are not what you want but are difficult/impossible to change, pressure to give jobs to family members who have no proper knowledge or experience for the specific jobs and damage product quality etc., family members who expect that they should be allowed to come 1, 2 hours late every day, take days off as they wish, etc., because it's family.

Edited by scorecard
Pib Star Member

Pib

Posted
Posted

No law against hiring family members, but some business people no doubt try to minimize it.

 

Employing family and/or loaning money to family can be a great way to cause life-long problems within the family when one family member does not pay back a loan to another family member or an employee is a total bum but can't be fired because he's family.   

 

Within my own thai-in-laws family I have seen the conflict (hate) caused by not paying back a loan at least 3 times over the last 5 years.  No, none of them owe me any money.   And I do have a couple of in-laws business men who do employ "close family members" such as sons but they generally avoid hiring family simply because then they don't have to worry about firing a family member when they don't work out, chewing them out for not working hard enough, missing a lot of work, etc.   Can be few headaches in keeping good relations within the immediate and extended family.

 

scorecard Star Member

scorecard

Posted
Posted (edited)
52 minutes ago, Pib said:

No law against hiring family members, but some business people no doubt try to minimize it.

 

Employing family and/or loaning money to family can be a great way to cause life-long problems within the family when one family member does not pay back a loan to another family member or an employee is a total bum but can't be fired because he's family.   

 

Within my own thai-in-laws family I have seen the conflict (hate) caused by not paying back a loan at least 3 times over the last 5 years.  No, none of them owe me any money.   And I do have a couple of in-laws business men who do employ "close family members" such as sons but they generally avoid hiring family simply because then they don't have to worry about firing a family member when they don't work out, chewing them out for not working hard enough, missing a lot of work, etc.   Can be few headaches in keeping good relations within the immediate and extended family.

 

 

Loans is a good example.

 

My Thai son was invited to join a group of close uni buddies, with extended family connections, to start a new company. He politely made an  excuse to decline, although he recognized that their business model was quite good for several reasons.

 

He shared with me that he declined to join because of the past history of 2 or 3 people in the group who were in continuous trouble with non payment of big borrowing from friends in the same group and the loans were for big football gambling. 

 

They did start the company, it folded with a big crash within 60 days. Just one reason, the guys mentioned in the paragraph above were taking sizeable amounts of cash from daily revenue almost every day for more football gambling, and nobody wanted to confront them.

 

 

Edited by scorecard
SteveB2 Advanced Member

SteveB2

Posted
Posted

A few years ago... :whistling:

 

The Chonburi National Insurance Office cancelling my wife's National Insurance benefits and ordered me to sack her from my company that she has worked at for the last 10 years.

 

They informed me that "the wife of a foreigner is not permitted to work in the company employing the foreigner" 

 

I thought this ruling strange, so I got my Bangkok Lawyer to ask for a formal clarification notice from the Thailand National Insurance Head office located in the Chaeng Wattana government complex.

 

Not surprisingly, NI (HQ) stated in their official clarification notice that there is "no restriction for employing the wife of a foreigner in the same company".

 

So...

 

Back to the Chonburi National Insurance office to get them to reinstate my wife’s NI status and clear up the mess.

 

However, the Chonburi NI Office big boss decided to stick his heals in a-la "No matter about CW clarification notice - we are Chonburi office - we can do what we want"

 

OK - so back on the phone to my Bangkok legal team - "what’s the best way forward to sort this out" I asked them. The answer 'Take the Chonburi NI office to the labor court for breach of Thai labor law" 

 

So, I let the dogs loose and took the Thai NI office to the Chonburi labor court.

Lots of feathers were ruffled in the Chonburi NI office by this action, which lead to our company being incessantly audited every week for a month or so by literally mini-bus loads of inspectors from many different government departments - but that's another story.

 

End result - the Chonburi NI office 'settled the case on the Labor Court steps' and reinstated my wife’s NI status. The ruling also overturned the 'sack your wife' instructions, and she was reinstated working back in the company.

 

Total legal costs were TH15K which I thought was not bad. Everything was all settled in under 30 days.

 

Thai Labor courts do not mess about with decisions. They side very much on defending the rights and benefits of Thai workers even to the point of seeing another Thai government department at the behest of a Farang to do so. :jap:

 

 

KKr Silver Member

KKr

Posted
Posted

of course no law on that, that would infringe civil liberty.
Anyway, common sense says that one should only hire qualified people, family or not.

Or, maybe someone told you that family is a "cannot" so , instead of a qualified family member, they can hire a qualified gig

fletchsmile Platinum Member

fletchsmile

Posted
Posted (edited)

Some companies often have policies on it from governance and control perspectives, e.g. stronger segregation of duties, and reduction in conflicts of interest etc. It's not unique to Thailand either. If anything I came across it more in the UK, where good governance and control principles are stronger than in Thailand

 

 

Edited by fletchsmile
Air Smiles Rookie Member

Air Smiles

Posted
Posted
17 minutes ago, fletchsmile said:

Some companies often have policies on it from governance and control perspectives, e.g. stronger segregation of duties, and reduction in conflicts of interest etc. It's not unique to Thailand either. If anything I came across it more in the UK, where good governance and control principles are stronger than in Thailand

 

 

 

Which uk companies have a policy to not employ more than 1 member of the same family?

scorecard Star Member

scorecard

Posted
Posted
10 hours ago, fletchsmile said:

Some companies often have policies on it from governance and control perspectives, e.g. stronger segregation of duties, and reduction in conflicts of interest etc. It's not unique to Thailand either. If anything I came across it more in the UK, where good governance and control principles are stronger than in Thailand

 

 

 

Well said, I'm well aware of a bigger Thai company where the Thai husband was the CEO and his Thai wife was the director responsible for oversight of all purchasing and contracts.

 

Over perhaps 20 the wife had become a very wealthy woman and was tangled in all sorts of collusion etc.

 

Then an idle / non ill-intended comment from a supplier to the CEO sparked a full thorough investigation. 

 

Wife ended up in jail for 8 years and her husband divorced her with zero divorce settlement.

 

 

Mike West Senior Member

Mike West

Posted
  • Author
Posted
On 1/11/2018 at 5:46 PM, elviajero said:

There is no law forbidding family members working together. Companies can choose to employ, or not employ, whoever they want.

LOL what? where did you hear/read this? you haven't been here long have you?

Mike West Senior Member

Mike West

Posted
  • Author
Posted
On 1/11/2018 at 12:54 PM, beachproperty said:

Wasn't aware that family members can't work together!:shock1:

 

Please cite the law or situation you are involved with where family members can't work together:post-4641-1156693976:

All the big chain face massage clinics absolutely have this as official policy. So does Max Value. 

elviajero Ruby Member

elviajero

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, Mike West said:

LOL what? where did you hear/read this? you haven't been here long have you?

I haven’t read it anywhere. But there is nothing in labour/employment law that forbids family members working together. If you believe otherwise, prove it.

 

Irrelevant but yes, 22 years, and I’m an employer.

Mike West Senior Member

Mike West

Posted
  • Author
Posted
6 hours ago, elviajero said:

I haven’t read it anywhere. But there is nothing in labour/employment law that forbids family members working together. If you believe otherwise, prove it.

 

Irrelevant but yes, 22 years, and I’m an employer.

Do you know how to read? think not. Reread the title of my thread. 

elviajero Ruby Member

elviajero

Posted
Posted
16 minutes ago, Mike West said:

Do you know how to read? think not. Reread the title of my thread. 

Yes.

Reread the title. My answers stand.

elviajero Ruby Member

elviajero

Posted
Posted (edited)

Why did you bother asking a question? You don’t seem to like or want to accept the answer!

 

Are you a troll?

Edited by elviajero
beachproperty Gold Member

beachproperty

Posted
Posted
7 hours ago, Mike West said:

How do you know? are you a Thai lawyer now? :post-4641-1156693976::post-4641-1156693976:

 

Somewhat bitter post!

It's OBVIOUS to those who can read .....No law has been cited or referred to SO therefore it MUST be company policy.....LEARN to read:passifier:

Mike West Senior Member

Mike West

Posted
  • Author
Posted
3 hours ago, beachproperty said:

 

Somewhat bitter post!

It's OBVIOUS to those who can read .....No law has been cited or referred to SO therefore it MUST be company policy.....LEARN to read:passifier:

:post-4641-1156693976: How is it obvious? so you read Thai now? "No law has been cited"? LOL what on earth are you talking about? go back to sleep. :cheesy:

Mike West Senior Member

Mike West

Posted
  • Author
Posted
10 hours ago, elviajero said:

Why did you bother asking a question? You don’t seem to like or want to accept the answer!

 

Are you a troll?

I wanted an answer, but as usual all the trolls come out of hiding, who answered it? tell me 

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