Severance Pay For A Maid

[mdsl]

Hi, we are leaving Bangkok in July to live in Chonburi. We have a full time maid and have given her 6 months notice of our moving.

I am unsure where to find out if we are obligated to pay severance pay and for how much. She received her annual months bonus wage in January.

Thank you for any advice

[GottaGo]

Depends on how long she's worked for you, between 1 and 3 years = 3 months.

You're only required to give a full month's notice based on her pay date, giving more doesn't give you any slack on the severance.

The bonus arrangement is also irrelevant, other than you probably want to add 9% in calculating her monthly wage to be safe.

And of course you've been paying her more than the minimum 300B per day right?

Tax and social security issues could be a factor if she wants to make trouble, but if she's been happy with you and/or isn't assertive about her legal rights you'll probably skate on those.

[Hedghog]

I would of thought,if the maid had performed well,at her job.

A generous, severance payment,wouldn't go amiss.

Accompanied by a letter of recommendation, in Thai and English.

[JAS21]

Depends on how long she's worked for you, between 1 and 3 years = 3 months.

You're only required to give a full month's notice based on her pay date, giving more doesn't give you any slack on the severance.

The bonus arrangement is also irrelevant, other than you probably want to add 9% in calculating her monthly wage to be safe.

And of course you've been paying her more than the minimum 300B per day right?

Tax and social security issues could be a factor if she wants to make trouble, but if she's been happy with you and/or isn't assertive about her legal rights you'll probably skate on those.

Are you actually sure about the above?

My wife says that it's not applicable to a live in maid.

Our maid, who we have had for nearly three years now, gets less than 300Baht a day for starters, but she gets all her food provided and her husband comes to stay occasionally when he is working nearby...she might buy his food ... I don't know. She has at least 14Days off once a year when she goes 'back home' and we pay her the full month plus give her some money. In addition, every two weeks she leaves on the Friday around lunchtime and come back the following Monday morning.

If she wants any other days off then that is OK as well, but she doesn't ask often. Sometimes her young daughter comes to stay in the holidays. She will do any jobs around the house and garden that we ask her to. She seems quite happy with us.

So there are hard and fast rules for maids who live in and get everything provided?

[samran]

Depends on how long she's worked for you, between 1 and 3 years = 3 months.

You're only required to give a full month's notice based on her pay date, giving more doesn't give you any slack on the severance.

The bonus arrangement is also irrelevant, other than you probably want to add 9% in calculating her monthly wage to be safe.

And of course you've been paying her more than the minimum 300B per day right?

Tax and social security issues could be a factor if she wants to make trouble, but if she's been happy with you and/or isn't assertive about her legal rights you'll probably skate on those.

Are you actually sure about the above?

My wife says that it's not applicable to a live in maid.

Our maid, who we have had for nearly three years now, gets less than 300Baht a day for starters, but she gets all her food provided and her husband comes to stay occasionally when he is working nearby...she might buy his food ... I don't know. She has at least 14Days off once a year when she goes 'back home' and we pay her the full month plus give her some money. In addition, every two weeks she leaves on the Friday around lunchtime and come back the following Monday morning.

If she wants any other days off then that is OK as well, but she doesn't ask often. Sometimes her young daughter comes to stay in the holidays. She will do any jobs around the house and garden that we ask her to. She seems quite happy with us.

So there are hard and fast rules for maids who live in and get everything provided?

Labor law is labor law. Many ignore it, but rules for severance pay, whether one has a formal contract or not, are well published on the internet in Thai and English. And the labor court is very active in ensuring that those who petition it are awarded what is die.

[scorecard]

As well as the requirements of the labor law, If your happy with her performance perhaps you could put a recommendation for her here on TV.

[GottaGo]

Depends on how long she's worked for you, between 1 and 3 years = 3 months.

You're only required to give a full month's notice based on her pay date, giving more doesn't give you any slack on the severance.

The bonus arrangement is also irrelevant, other than you probably want to add 9% in calculating her monthly wage to be safe.

And of course you've been paying her more than the minimum 300B per day right?

Tax and social security issues could be a factor if she wants to make trouble, but if she's been happy with you and/or isn't assertive about her legal rights you'll probably skate on those.

Are you actually sure about the above?

My wife says that it's not applicable to a live in maid.

Our maid, who we have had for nearly three years now, gets less than 300Baht a day for starters, but she gets all her food provided and her husband comes to stay occasionally when he is working nearby...she might buy his food ... I don't know. She has at least 14Days off once a year when she goes 'back home' and we pay her the full month plus give her some money. In addition, every two weeks she leaves on the Friday around lunchtime and come back the following Monday morning.

If she wants any other days off then that is OK as well, but she doesn't ask often. Sometimes her young daughter comes to stay in the holidays. She will do any jobs around the house and garden that we ask her to. She seems quite happy with us.

So there are hard and fast rules for maids who live in and get everything provided?

If by "the above" you're specifically talking about the minimum wage, I suppose it is possible that they'd take food expense into account for live-in staff.

However holidays etc don't count, up to you what you give her above and beyond what's legally required.

Only way to work that (for a new employee) would be to have everything be officially at the minimum required, and then allow them to "buy" the extra benefits at very-attractive-to-them rates.

However if you're being that generous in other areas, why not just pay the minimum wage and not have to worry about complications? Especially if they speak English you're paying well below what she'd be able to get very easily out in the market these days, most foreigners I know are paying ridiculous rates for English-speaking staff.

Anyway the severance and notice requirements are indeed cast in stone for all employees, no getting out of that if the staff know their rights and are willing to go to the trouble of going to court. On the other stuff I was specifically erring on the side of being conservative, as noted above if there's any leeway the Labor Court will usually rule in favor of the employee - but fairly, a few thousand baht penalty is considered harsh even if it's a multi-billion dollar company 8-)

[mdsl]

Thank you for your help. She has worked with us for 18 months and is paid more than 300 baht a day.

Does this mean I should also have been taking tax to pay for her? I have not done that.

She is not a live in but she is full time (8am - 4pm every weekday)

She has been a wonderful maid. She will be looking for work in Nonthaburi (we did ask if she could come with us but there is not a quarters for live in where we are moving and she does not have family close enough to live with) if anyone is looking for a maid after July 1 please message me (she does not speak English)

[sunlong]

Thank you for your help. She has worked with us for 18 months and is paid more than 300 baht a day.

Does this mean I should also have been taking tax to pay for her? I have not done that.

She is not a live in but she is full time (8am - 4pm every weekday)

She has been a wonderful maid. She will be looking for work in Nonthaburi (we did ask if she could come with us but there is not a quarters for live in where we are moving and she does not have family close enough to live with) if anyone is looking for a maid after July 1 please message me (she does not speak English)

You owe her one month's severance and one "full" month's notice, based on her pay day, so if mid-month six weeks, best in writing but perhaps in this case not necessary.

If less notice then one month's pay in lieu of the notice.

In your case since the bonus is a fixed entitlement, then add 9%, maybe a bit more to be nice given food holidays etc since you were so happy with her work, consider it a tip if you like or a bit of "safety margin" if you prefer, better over than under.

From the other thread on this topic: http://www.mol.go.th/sites/default/files/images/jpg/01.pdf

The other legal issues are possibly liabilities, but if your relationship with you is good and no one else who knows wants to make a case about it to get at you you should be OK. But if you want to be strictly legal in every way then yes, you're supposed to withhold tax, pay the social security etc and provide her with a statement - personally I think more trouble than it's worth, most servants here are just paid cash.

The lawyers would of course disagree.

It's very likely she knows little of these requirements and doesn't expect any of it, so if you like just give it all to her cash in hand as a nice good bye surprise rather than educating her on the possibilities she could try to use leverage to try to get more. From what you say it sounds like she'll just give you a deep wai and khop khun maaaaak!