Thai Labor Protection: The Warning Letter
January 7 2010 Categories: Thailand Business No comments yet
Many employers in Thailand have found themself condamned for unfair dismissal as a result of court proceedings filed by employees that were terminated following a disciplinary action for violation of the company working rules. The reason for this is that Thai laws are very formal and that the disciplinary procedure must be in conpliance with the law or the working regulation of the company in order to be valid and opposable to the employee.
To facilitate your understanding of the issues at stake we have summarized the dismissal process of an employee in a table below:
Note that the procedure discussed below is applicable to standard employees only and does not apply to an employee that is a member of an Employee Committee constituted in accordance with the Labor Relation Act.
In the example below we discuss the case of an employee that would be disciplined and terminated for a violation of the company working rules.
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STEPS |
REMARKS |
| First Step:
Checks the company work rules or employment contract if the company has a disciplinary procedure |
If the company has a disciplinary procedure in its working regulation or in the employee agreement the procedure must be followed step by step. For example the company procedure stipulates that the employer has to give a verbal warning in case of violation by an employee of the working rule then the employer has to give a verbal warning to the employee before to issue a warning letter. Missing a procedural step will render the whole termination process invalid and the Employer will be condemned for unfair dismissal. |
| Second Step: Writing the warning letter:
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If the working regulation of the company does not provide for the obligation of a verbal warning or if the employer has already given the verbal warning the next step is to write the warning letter. The warning letter must contains the following information: (i) Date of issuance of the warning letter. (ii) Name and position of the employee. (iii) A description of the behavior of the employee which constitutes a violation of the work rules and mention of the date when said violation happened. (iv) A reference to the work rules which the employee has violated. (v) A statement that if the employee commits the same violation again, the employer will punish the employee pursuant to the procedure in the work rules. In one of this information is missing the letter is not valid
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| Third Step Notification of the warning letter to the employee
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There are two options:
The employer remits the letter to the employee and the employee signs receipt of the letter. If the employee refuse to sign receipt of the letter: (1) The employer has to call two employees as witness (2) The employer reads the content of the warning letter to the employee guilty of the violation in the presence of the two witnesses (3) The employer request the two employees witnesses to sign the letter and certify that the employer has read it in front of the employee |
| Fourth Step: Subsequent Warning Letter or Termination
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If the working regulation of the company provides that another warning letter is needed then the employer has to send a second warning letter to the employee prior to terminate him/her. If not the employer may send the termination letter. |
| Validity of a warning Letter
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A warning letter is valid for a period of one year starting from the date when the violation happened and not the date when the letter of warning was sent. |
| Confession vs Warning Letter |
A confession letter in which the employee admits his guilt is not a warning letter and does not dispense the employer to send a proper warning letter.
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Note: This post is an excerpt of Rene Philippe Dubout next book: “How to Invest Safely Into Thailand” to be published in January 2010
About the Author:
The author Rene-Philippe DUBOUT is a lawyer since 1990 when he was admitted to Geneva bar (Switzerland). He practiced as a litigator there for 10 years until he moved to Thailand in 1999. In 2002 he founded with a group of Thai lawyers Rene Philippe & Partners Ltd a local law firm that specialized in Cross Borders Investments and Real Estate. He has been lecturing in several Thai Universities and a speaker to numerous conferences and seminars. He is the author of a must read book:”How to Purchase Real Estate Offshore Safely: The Case of Thailand”.
http//:www.renephilippe.com
© Copyrights 2009 – Rene Philippe Dubout – This article may be reprinted if information about the author, the websites, and the URLs remain intact
Originally posted 2009-12-01 02:34:02.
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