Public holidays are dealt with differently in Thailand. In many other foreign countries, a public holiday means it is either an off day for the company and the employees otherwise the employer needs to pay the employee at least 1.5 or 2 times to work on a public holidays.
In Thailand, this is not the case. In Thailand, there are about 22 gazetted public holidays a year and by law, the employer need to choose at LEAST 13 of the 22 gazetted public holidays as OFF day.
Best Practice
- Decide how many paid public holidays you would like to offer your employees. Too little, no one wants to work with you, too many and your business will suffer. A figure like 15 days is common.
- Plan the paid public holidays in advance. Create a list and publish the list of paid public holiday your company has chosen and make sure every employee has access to it.
Do keep in mind that there are many other types of holidays an employee is entitled to in Thailand. They are:
- Sick Leave
- Maternity Leave
- Paternity Leave
- Military Service Leave
- Personal Business Leave
- Training Leave
Sick leave
Employees are entitled to sick leave as long as the employee is sick, and if the employee takes a sick leave for more than three days, the employer may require a medical certificate from a licensed physician or official medical establishment. An employee is allowed up to 30 days of sick leave in a year.
Maternity leave
The maximum number of days of maternity leave that an expectant mother is entitled to is 98 (inclusive of holidays). The leave includes the time taken for prenatal care. The expectant mother can expect to receive for up to 45 days of equal pay throughout the leave period.
Paternity leave
Within 30 days after the child’s birth, state employees or those working in the public sector are eligible for up to 15 days of paid leave. Officials who take extra time off to care for their infants will not be compensated. In the private sector, paternity leave is not granted by statute, although employers can provide paid or unpaid time off.
Military service leave
Male employees are entitled to leave for military service for inspection, military drilling or for readiness testing and get his basic pay at a rate equal to normal working days during the leave but not exceed 60 days.
Personal business leave
Employees are entitled to a personal business leave of three working days a year. The employer cannot deduct business leave from annual leave.
Training leave
An employee is entitled to take leave for training or skill development in accordance with the following cases:
- Acquiring skills to improve labour and welfare, or to increase the employee’s effective at work
- Testing of educational level as required by the government; however, it is not applicable where the training is at the request of the employee. All leave requests must be submitted to the supervisor at least seven days in advance, and an employee shall leave only after receiving the approval from the supervisor and an employee shall not get the basic pay for this leave.
If you need assistance in doing business in Thailand, give us a yell and we’ll do our best to provide you with the best and practical advise.
Visit us: www.unionspace.co.th
Call us: +662 036 0600
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