Labor Lawyer

[eutin45]

Need reliable lawyer for Labor Dispute (cancellation of 3 year employment with Thai Firm without severance pay). Reasonable fees included.

Thanks

RP

[Jobo]

Not in Chiang Mai but this company is good. Deals specifically with Labour Law and disputes.

MRTS

[email protected]

I have not contacted them since April 2009 so hope they are still around.

Let me know how you go.

[LJW]

If they fired you with reason, forget about compensation

[Rama]

Attorney, Kuhn Krit at Sunbelt in Ching Mai. Speaks excellent English also. 053-277-707

[Loaded]

You don't need a lawyer.

Go to the labour office at city hall along the Mae Rim road. It was on the top floor at the back but someone will direct you. Explain to the officer what happened. In my case, they phoned my employer immediately and asked for an explanation. He confirmed what had happened.

The next stage, which is optional, is the compromise stage. A date at the labour court is arranged where you and your previous employer will sit down with a court mediator and discuss a compromise. Thai labour law is very heavily weighed in the favour of the employee. Unless your employer has followed labour law to the letter (unlikely), the mediator will explain they will lose the next stage, court, so should offer you a compromise payment. It's up to you whether you accept. I didn't.

It went to court a couple of months later. I attended without a solicitor and took my wife to translate. My case was prepared for free by a labour court duty solicitor. I won and picked up my cheque a few weeks later. Make sure you photocopy the cheque and bring it out every time you need to cheer yourself up.

My employer took along an expensive lawyer but the judges told him to shut up because they only wanted to hear from me and my old boss.

Thai labour law in English:

http://www.thailaws.com/index_thai_laws.htm

[eutin45]

You don't need a lawyer.

Go to the labour office at city hall along the Mae Rim road. It was on the top floor at the back but someone will direct you. Explain to the officer what happened. In my case, they phoned my employer immediately and asked for an explanation. He confirmed what had happened.

The next stage, which is optional, is the compromise stage. A date at the labour court is arranged where you and your previous employer will sit down with a court mediator and discuss a compromise. Thai labour law is very heavily weighed in the favour of the employee. Unless your employer has followed labour law to the letter (unlikely), the mediator will explain they will lose the next stage, court, so should offer you a compromise payment. It's up to you whether you accept. I didn't.

It went to court a couple of months later. I attended without a solicitor and took my wife to translate. My case was prepared for free by a labour court duty solicitor. I won and picked up my cheque a few weeks later. Make sure you photocopy the cheque and bring it out every time you need to cheer yourself up.

My employer took along an expensive lawyer but the judges told him to shut up because they only wanted to hear from me and my old boss.

Thai labour law in English:

Thank you for your notes:

I went 3 or 4 times to the Labor Office on the first floor. They sent me to another office in another complex nearby and gave me the runaround. The last time I came with a translator, same story. They claimed I need to hire a lawyer as my case is more complicated. (During the last 6 months of employment I received 2 times 2 warnings on the same day - phony and without a base as they were). They stubbornly insisted that I need to hire a lawyer.

The lawyer wants 45000Baht and 25000Baht down. That is not exactly the kind of money you have when you got fired and the company owes you 300000Baht in severance pay. So I am looking for another lawyer now who is asking for less money upfront.

RP

http://www.thailaws....x_thai_laws.htm

[Loaded]

You don't need a lawyer.

Go to the labour office at city hall along the Mae Rim road. It was on the top floor at the back but someone will direct you. Explain to the officer what happened. In my case, they phoned my employer immediately and asked for an explanation. He confirmed what had happened.

The next stage, which is optional, is the compromise stage. A date at the labour court is arranged where you and your previous employer will sit down with a court mediator and discuss a compromise. Thai labour law is very heavily weighed in the favour of the employee. Unless your employer has followed labour law to the letter (unlikely), the mediator will explain they will lose the next stage, court, so should offer you a compromise payment. It's up to you whether you accept. I didn't.

It went to court a couple of months later. I attended without a solicitor and took my wife to translate. My case was prepared for free by a labour court duty solicitor. I won and picked up my cheque a few weeks later. Make sure you photocopy the cheque and bring it out every time you need to cheer yourself up.

My employer took along an expensive lawyer but the judges told him to shut up because they only wanted to hear from me and my old boss.

Thai labour law in English:

Thank you for your notes:

I went 3 or 4 times to the Labor Office on the first floor. They sent me to another office in another complex nearby and gave me the runaround. The last time I came with a translator, same story. They claimed I need to hire a lawyer as my case is more complicated. (During the last 6 months of employment I received 2 times 2 warnings on the same day - phony and without a base as they were). They stubbornly insisted that I need to hire a lawyer.

The lawyer wants 45000Baht and 25000Baht down. That is not exactly the kind of money you have when you got fired and the company owes you 300000Baht in severance pay. So I am looking for another lawyer now who is asking for less money upfront.

RP

http://www.thailaws....x_thai_laws.htm

I didn't go to an office on the ground floor. If I remember correctly it was top floor adjacent to the entrance.

45K sounds too expensive.

Some solicitors here recommended by TV members:

I recommend Ajarn Sanyalux from that list. When I used him for something else, he was substantially cheaper than 45K but his rates may have risen.

[Kf6vci]

My experience has been dreadful. Maybe they like you, Loaded - or they have believed everything my employer has been telling the court during their language based ex parte communication?

It started with me showing up with a nice pay slip a few days after every body had been paid. To accommodate them, I had to open an account at their bank... Queuing half an hour, then nothing, nada.

• A phone call to the employer would have been great - instead I had to get someone to translate via mobile phone.
  
• The next day, I was handed a nasty letter - in which they enumerated all the things they didn't like. But they failed to fire me!
  
• The employer thought I was still "in the probationary period" - a most absurd error.
  
• They also ignored their own contract, and the 1 month's notice period and severance.
  
• The icing on the cake has been them writing that they "will fire me" instead of just terminating me with a 1-liner.
  

At the arbitration hearing, my interpreter failed to show up. (They provide them in Bangkok - go figure what this says about common standards throughout the Kingdom). The court's attorney talked with the employer's reps for hours - all in Thai!

Then they offered me a silly amount.

Then the case was dropped without the court even giving a written ruling or something.

(At the hearing, a court secretary had promised me that the employer would "be sued in 2 weeks' time" - that never happened.

Their line is now "get your own attorney..."

Well, there are all these laws and then there is the ugly reality. Like them agreeing to transfer my WP, but they had already cancelled it 2 weeks before the hearing. (I just had to pay > 30,000 Baht in related costs, kaup khun krap!)

And for those who think the MoL or some other government agency would care and help, can you post a phone number?

It begins with them not speaking English! Even the switchboard guy used to hang up rather than ask around "who can speak English?", then transfer the call!

I applied for a hearing of the employer's Welfare Committee - as I'm still without the salary. And they have no intention of paying, of course.

The little surprise with triggering an overstay issue was their spiel to blackmail me. They would have dated the letter to Immigration that I would avoid overstay (20,000 Baht + 1,900 Baht for a 7 Days' Extension + flight etc.). But then I would have to give up my salary for which I had worked!

*************

When I called the leading law firms, they all said you will get a free attorney at the Labour Court.

Well, I won't - just checked again in person last week.

I guess it's a racial thing besides antipathy.

What's beneath that famous Thai smile is something I wish none of you will have to find out!

(Anyone got a lead to a good attorney? How much was your retainer etc.?)

Cheers and beers!

[Thighlander]

Teachers getting screwed on pay is older than the Moat, itself.