Services / Labour and employment
At ten employees, work rules become compulsory
Work rules are often treated as a formality. The statute in fact fixes when they become compulsory, what has to be in them, and how they must be made available — and a second statute can turn the document into an agreement on conditions of employment.
Ten employees, and fifteen days
Section 108 of the Labour Protection Act B.E. 2541 (1998) requires an employer with ten or more employees in total to have work rules in Thai, and to announce them within fifteen days of the day the employer came to have ten or more employees. The trigger is therefore not the founding of the business or the end of a year but the day the headcount reaches ten — a date a growing business rarely records.
The eight items required as a minimum
Section 108 requires the rules to cover, at least, working days, normal working hours and rest periods; holidays and the rules for taking them; the rules on overtime and holiday working; the day and place for paying wages, overtime pay, holiday pay and holiday overtime pay; leave and the rules for taking it; discipline and disciplinary penalties; grievances; and termination, severance pay and special severance pay.
Discipline, the item that gets used in court
Of the eight, discipline and disciplinary penalties is the item most often reached for in litigation, because dismissal without severance under section 119(4) rests on a breach of the employer's work rules, regulations or lawful and fair orders. An employer who has not set the disciplinary provisions down clearly loses the ground it would later want to stand on, and an employee has reason to read that part before any other.
Publication, and the electronic route
Section 108 requires the employer to keep a copy at the workplace or its office at all times, and to publish and post the rules openly at the employees' place of work, or additionally by electronic means, so that employees may know of them and reach them conveniently. The word additionally repays careful reading: the electronic route adds a channel rather than replacing the posting.
Amendment, and the labour relations effect
Section 110 provides that where the rules announced under section 108 are amended, the employer announces the amended rules, and the second and third paragraphs of section 108 apply with the necessary modifications. Beyond that, section 10 of the Labour Relations Act B.E. 2518 (1975) provides that where it is doubtful whether an establishment has an agreement on conditions of employment, the work rules required under the labour protection law are deemed to be such an agreement.
PREPARE
What to bring
- The current headcount and the date it reached ten
- The rules currently in force, if any, and when announced
- The internal regulations and orders actually in use
- How the work and the hours actually run in practice
- How the rules are currently made known to employees
QUESTIONS
Questions this raises
The headcount has dropped below ten. Are they still needed?
Section 108 attaches the duty to having ten or more employees in total, and sets the announcement period at fifteen days from the day that number was reached. What then deserves thought is the effect of section 10 of the Labour Relations Act, which may already have made those rules an agreement on conditions of employment — a separate question from the duty to have them under section 108.
Can we tighten the rules on our own?
Section 110 speaks to the procedure for announcing amended rules, but the real question usually lies with section 10 of the Labour Relations Act, which may make the rules an agreement on conditions of employment. An amendment unfavourable to employees therefore has to be considered under both statutes together, not merely by following the announcement procedure.
LAW
The legislation
- Labour Protection Act B.E. 2541 (1998), section 108
- Labour Protection Act B.E. 2541 (1998), section 110
- Labour Relations Act B.E. 2518 (1975), section 10
ENQUIRIES
