Aphiwat Bualoi Law Office

We act as legal consultants to companies in Thailand on the employment decisions that carry real cost. Internal disciplinary investigations. Ending an employment. Responding to a labour inspector. Defending a claim in the Labour Court. And putting the right documents in place before any of that happens.

Our clients are companies in Thailand with Thai and foreign staff, whose management works in English. We give our advice in English and prepare everything that is filed in Thai.

Services

Before you end an employment

Most of the difficulty in a Thai dismissal is not the decision. It is the record.

You need three things. A ground that the law recognises. Evidence that supports it. The correct payment, made on the correct date.

We look at those before the letter is issued rather than after. If the dismissal has already happened and gone wrong, we tell you.

What a mistake costs

Severance rises with length of service. An employee with seven years of service is owed 240 days of wages, roughly eight months. It is due on the day the employment ends, not at the end of the payroll month.

The greater exposure is delay. An employer who wilfully fails to pay without reasonable cause owes interest of 15 percent a year, and a further 15 percent of the outstanding sum for every seven days the default continues. A negotiation that runs for two months can cost more than the original claim.

A claim may be brought for ten years, which is why we also advise on what you keep and for how long.

Most disputes here do not begin in court. They begin with a letter from a labour inspector. It is the faster route and the one your employees are most likely to use.

What changed in December 2025

Maternity leave rose to 120 days, with 60 days paid at full wages. A new childcare leave of up to 15 days at half wages was introduced. A new paternity and spousal leave of up to 15 days at full wages was introduced, and it applies to spouses of the same sex.

If your work rules and employment contracts were written before December 2025, they no longer state the law correctly.

There is also the Employee Welfare Fund. From 1 October 2026, if you employ ten or more people and do not maintain a provident fund, you and each employee contribute 0.25 percent of wages. The rate rises to 0.50 percent from October 2031.

Ten employees is the same point at which you must file work rules. Several obligations arrive together, and most companies pass that line without noticing.

About Us

Our office

Aphiwat Bualoi Law Office Co., Ltd. is a Chiang Mai office acting as legal consultant to companies, and advising on estate planning, property, notarial services and employment. We act for companies throughout Thailand. Employment work is done by correspondence, email and video call, and we file in the province where the matter belongs.

The lawyer

How we work

We begin by establishing the facts, because a question about termination cannot be answered from the statute alone. Once the position is clear we agree the fee in writing, and only then does the work begin. Our advice is given in writing, in English, with the relevant statutory references, so that it can be placed before a board or a parent company without further translation. The documents that are filed and served are prepared in Thai. Enquiries on employment matters receive a reply the same working day.

Who we work with

Foreign owned companies employing Thai staff. International schools and language schools. Hotels, resorts and restaurant groups. Manufacturers promoted by the Board of Investment. Technology companies and agencies. Owner managed businesses with five to thirty staff.

Questions employers ask

1. Do I need to give a written warning before I terminate someone?
Not for every termination. An employer may end an employment on notice with severance paid, without any warning. A written warning matters when you intend to rely on the employee’s conduct to avoid paying severance under Section 119, because the Act requires a prior written warning for repeated breaches and the warning is valid for one year. Even a lawful termination can still be challenged as unfair, so the record matters in both cases.

2. Can I let someone go freely during the 120 day probation?
There is no probation rule in the Act. The 120 days is the point at which severance becomes payable. Before it, severance is not due, but advance notice still is. If notice is not given correctly, the employer must pay payment in lieu of advance notice, equal to the salary for the notice period. The employee can also still bring an unfair dismissal claim. A signed “probation not completed” form does not settle the matter on its own.

3. My employee resigned, my manager told her she could leave early, and now she is at the Labour Department. Do I owe anything?
Very likely, yes. Sending an employee home before her resignation takes effect turns her resignation into your termination. At minimum the wages to the end of the notice period are owed, and if her service qualifies, severance as well.

4. What is the Labour Court like for an employer? Should I settle?
Proceedings begin with conciliation, and most claims end there. If they proceed, the court decides on the documents and the witnesses. It does not generally order the losing side to pay the other side’s legal costs. Whether to settle depends on the record you hold, which is why we ask to see it before advising either way.

5. The company cannot pay salaries. Am I personally liable as the director?
The company is the employer, and the claim is against the company. The Act does, however, contain provisions under which directors and managers can face liability for offences committed by the company, including non-payment of wages. The limited company does not close that door entirely.

6. Does severance include the notice period?
Length of service runs to the last day of employment. If the employee works through the notice period, that time counts. If you pay in lieu and end the employment at once, it does not.

7. How many days of sick leave, and can I insist on a medical certificate?
An employee may take sick leave for as long as actually sick, with pay for up to 30 working days a year. There is no reduced entitlement in the first year. A medical certificate may be required for absences of three days or more, and only where the days are consecutive.

8. Is a thirteenth month bonus required by law?
No statute requires a bonus. It is a matter of contract or custom. A bonus paid every year without conditions can, over time, become a term of the employment, so how it is paid matters as much as whether it is paid.

9. Can I hire staff as contractors or consultants and avoid the labour law?
The label does not decide the question. Where the company controls the work and pays for the person’s time, the relationship is employment and the Act applies whatever the contract calls it.

10. Can I deduct an overpayment from the next salary?
Wage deductions are restricted by the Act to a short list of cases. Recovering an overpayment is not on that list unless the employee consents in writing. Deducting without consent creates a second claim on top of the first.

Employment law notes

Notes on Thai employment law, written for companies and their management.