I am hoping that someone with greater knowledge than me can help with this one....

We run a small English school. About 2 years ago the Labor Office told us that all employees (including foreigners) must enroll in the Government Social Insurance program, as part of the work permit application. We had no problem with that. All staff have paid into the program since then - the Thai staff had always been enrolled anyway, and we cancelled the private health care plan that we had (to save money!).

Everything has been fine for the last 2 years - we all have medical cards and I have personally used it (only once).

Fast forward to this week - we have just been told that the foreign staff have no right to enroll in the Government program, and never should have been... even though it was the same office that told us originally that we must be enrolled. This seems to go against everything I have read here on ThaiVisa.

When asked about refunding the money that they have taken for the last two years, the reply was (and I am not joking here) "They are foreigners - they can afford to lose some money!"

I don't know if this is just some individual in the Labor Office who has a grudge against foreigners, or if this is a new(?) policy on the Government's part.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated - many thanks!

Employees at private schools were taken out of SS a number of years ago.

So, depending on how your business is registered and licensed, the employees might or might not be eligible.

I've always thought that this applied to Thai employees as well.

Don't depend on the Labor department to have good info. Go to the SS Office and ask them. I've always found them to be very helpful.

Ask about both Thai and foreign employees so you don't get another surprise down the road.

I believe they would also be the ones to talk to about a refund.

Since the employees have been in the system for longer than 12 months (have they?) they might be able to continue paying in themselves for the health benefit. 432 baht per month when you sign up and pay yourself.

That's what many private school teachers did when they were kicked out of the system years ago.

If they won't let them stay because they shouldn't have been in the system in the first place, I'd definitely push for a refund.

Good luck.

Terry

Thank you so much TerryLH for your information - it helped me a lot.... best get down to the SS office tomorrow to sort things out

OP

Any update you'd care to share with us?

Terry