Severance Pay - Government School

[AngryParent]

A Thai legal question:

One has been working for a government school for almost 4 years (on 1 year renewed contracts).

1. If the school does not renew the contract at the end of this contract year, will severence pay be due to me under Thai law?

2. If the school terminates before the end of the contract term will severance + notice period be due to me?

I do not see the school changing their taught courses (all classes are as before) and my classes will be taught by other existing teachers. Does this material fact affect matters?

Please, so as to assist this matter, if you have first-hand experience/knowledge say so. If you just have an opinion regarding how Thailand and employment should or not be, please state that it is only an opinion.

Thanks.

Edited September 29, 2012 by AngryParent

[WonnabeBiker]

Right now, I'm fighting for notice and severance pay. But I just filed this Thursday and have to wait for the outcome. OTOH, Google is your friend when it comes to reading up on Thai labour laws.

Go for it, blaze your own trail!

[thaicbr]

A Thai legal question:

One has been working for a government school for almost 4 years (on 1 year renewed contracts).

1. If the school does not renew the contract at the end of this contract year, will severence pay be due to me under Thai law?

2. If the school terminates before the end of the contract term will severance + notice period be due to me?

I do not see the school changing their taught courses (all classes are as before) and my classes will be taught by other existing teachers. Does this material fact affect matters?

Please, so as to assist this matter, if you have first-hand experience/knowledge say so. If you just have an opinion regarding how Thailand and employment should or not be, please state that it is only an opinion.

Thanks.

As far as I'm aware the labor court treat 3 year successive contract terms as a full time job (not contracted) the problem you have is they are not replacing you. Just down sizing. That affects the outcome slightly. I would go and check out the labour court. They can help. The other OP as far as I'm aware. If you ask at the court they will try and provide an english speaker to help. At least where I live they do.

sent from my Wellcom A90+

[sirchai]

A Thai legal question:

One has been working for a government school for almost 4 years (on 1 year renewed contracts).

1. If the school does not renew the contract at the end of this contract year, will severence pay be due to me under Thai law?

2. If the school terminates before the end of the contract term will severance + notice period be due to me?

I do not see the school changing their taught courses (all classes are as before) and my classes will be taught by other existing teachers. Does this material fact affect matters?

Please, so as to assist this matter, if you have first-hand experience/knowledge say so. If you just have an opinion regarding how Thailand and employment should or not be, please state that it is only an opinion.

Thanks.

As far as I'm aware the labor court treat 3 year successive contract terms as a full time job (not contracted) the problem you have is they are not replacing you. Just down sizing. That affects the outcome slightly. I would go and check out the labour court. They can help. The other OP as far as I'm aware. If you ask at the court they will try and provide an english speaker to help. At least where I live they do.

sent from my Wellcom A90+

At least they will send somebody who's acting like he would speak English.-----

[schondie]

This is a tricky one as you aren't being fired. If your contract isn't renewed I'm not sure where you stand under Thai Labour law.

Wrongful dissmissal would get you a nice chunk of cash but this is different. Also it's worth speaking to a lawyer to make sure you're entitled to something. Many lawyers would charge around a 1000 Baht for a consultation so it would be better to know if you're wasting your time trying for some compensation than going after something you're not going to get.

[Scott]

It is my understanding that the Thai Labor Laws apply to a gov't school whether you are a foreigner or a Thai. The basic question would be: What would happen to a Thai teacher in the same scenario?

If a Thai teacher would get severance pay, then I believe you would be entitled to it as well.

[Loaded]

If the school can convince the labour court that your job no longer exists, I believe you cannot claim severance if you've been on yearly contracts. Contracts normally stipulate that you need to receive 1-month's notice of termination though. If you didn't receive this, it's possible you have a stronger case. The best source of reliable and accurate information is the labour office.

[Scott]

You might want to check this out:

http://www.tilleke.com/sites/default/files/2011_TLB.pdf

I believe the Labor Law is around page 113.

[somtumlion]

It is my understanding that the Thai Labor Laws apply to a gov't school whether you are a foreigner or a Thai. The basic question would be: What would happen to a Thai teacher in the same scenario?

If a Thai teacher would get severance pay, then I believe you would be entitled to it as well.

Should be mentioned that the labor law doesn't cover universities.

[MisterE]

Well, Scott's link didn't work for me when I tried to download it direct from this forum page with a right click, Save As...

But when I used the PDF reader browser plugin it did load.

I found a post here that had a working link to the Thai Labour Law Act but I can't for the life of me find it again now. I'm glad I downloaded the PDFs when I first stumbled across them though because every other link to the Thai Labour Law Act here is dead I wanted to add the links here : http://www.thaivisa....75#entry4170065

But for some reason this thread doesn't even come up when searching this forum using the thread title copy and pasted??? Maybe it's closed or whatever, I'm new here and couldn't find how to reply.

<Dropbox links to PDFs removed>

Ahh the working links were in the footer of the PDFs.

Labour Protection Act, B.E. 2554 (1998) : http://www.ilo.org/d...19/E98THA01.htm

Labour Protection Act (No.2), B.E. 2551(2008) [Wow this site deserves a bookmark, it has everything] : www.thailaws.com

This looks interesting too : Act on the Establishment of and Procedure for Labor Court, B.E. 2522 (1979)

Hope they are helpful.

What we really need is a foreign teacher's union but I know.

Edited October 21, 2012 by MisterE

[Markaew]

Absolutely go to the Ministry of Labor. They have a history of helping foreigners. I am not sure how they compute the amount but you should be able draw some money from the school such 3 or 4 months pay with a history of contracts of 3 years. Maybe more. The school will say you can't get any money but you really should go to the M of L. It is my belief that the M of L is the only place a foreigner can get a sympathetic ear.

[GarryP]

From my reading of the law, you are entitled to 180 days severance pay regardless that you are on 1 year contracts. The nature of your work would not fall under any of the exceptions whereby the employer does not need to pay severance. BTW I assume you are a teacher and not doing a special project for the school.

[MisterE]

Hi again, If you need a copy of the complete Labour Protection Law in Thai, updated to include all amendments passed since the original law was enacted in 1998, you can download it at the bottom of this page:

http://protection.labour.go.th/

It's a 64MB PDF document it appears someone is pretty clueless about how to make a reduced sized PDF. TIT

If there is any interest I can reduce the PDF file size and make it available for download.

Also, this page from the same site has all of the Labour Protection Laws individually here:

http://protection.labour.go.th/index.php?option=com_weblinks&view=category&id=58&Itemid=5

This could be very helpful for business owners and employees who want information that is not related to teaching occupations.

Combined with the English translations at www.thailaws.com you can find the relevant sections in the Thai documents if you can read Thai numbers.

This site works very well using Google Translate.

[bangkokburning]

You are not being terminated or dismissed. Contract has been met and fulfilled.

Good luck.

[culicine]

This is in reference to private schools, but interesting nethertheless: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/545115-question-on-severance-pay-for-sunbelt/

I'd be due a year's severance now:) Let's hot they don't downsize or close my English Program:)