Month: July 2024

In this third installment of our case studies on Supreme Court cases relating to unfair termination we shall continue our examination of various types of reasons used to justify employee termination including defamation, sale of business, and dismissal due to restructuring of the employer. These judgements shall help to provide useful and practical guidance on what does and does not constitute unfair termination under Thai law. Defamation Case Number 19565/2557 Facts: The Plaintiff slandered his supervisor when he spat and said that the supervisor was not an honest person like in the past and that he is a disrespectful person. Given this, the Defendant terminated the employment of the Plaintiff. The Plaintiff then subsequently sued the Defendant in the Labour Court claiming unfair termination. The Appeal Court ruled that even though the Plaintiff’s behavior was not a serious violation of […]

In this second installment of our case studies on Supreme Court cases relating to unfair termination we shall continue to examine various types of reasons used to justify employee termination including inadequate/ poor performance and company reorganization. These judgements shall help to provide practical guidance on what constitutes unfair termination under Thai law. Inadequate/ poor work performance Case Number 7096/2550 Facts: The Employee’s employment contract contained conditions which provided that if the employee: was unable to work according to the Company’s standards; neglected their work duties; came to work late; was evaluated at a low working level, or received several warning letters from employer, then the employer could terminate the employment contract. In this case the employee was unable to comply with the Company’s work standards and the employee’s work performance was evaluated as being at a low level on […]

Some employers in Thailand misunderstand the law relating to terminating staff and as such they believe that if they pay severance pay to a terminated employee according to section 118 of the Labor Protection Act (B.E. 2541), they can terminate an employee for any reason whatsoever. Such a misunderstanding of Thai law can result in an employer being subject to considerable legal liability given that a terminated employee may be able to submit a claim in the Thai Labour Court seeking compensation from their employer or reinstatement of their employment on the grounds of unfair termination. There are several issues which need to be examined when determining what constitutes an unfair termination, however in this article we will focus on judgments of the Supreme Court in order to provide guidance on the issue. To begin with we should focus on […]