In Thailand the contract sets the ceiling on an employee's rights, never the floor.

Two separate questions decide the cost of a dismissal. The first is whether a statutory cause existed, because a cause defeats severance. The second is whether the dismissal was unfair, because an unfair dismissal can attract compensation even where severance was paid correctly. An employer can therefore pay everything owed and still lose, if the reason for the dismissal was arbitrary or the process was not followed.

The mechanics are unforgiving. The reason must be given in the dismissal document at the time; adding a better reason during the hearing does not work. Where the employer relies on a breach of work rules, there must be lawful published rules, a written warning that identifies the conduct, and a dismissal within the warning's effective period. Where the employer relies on absence, the three days must be consecutive working days without reasonable cause. Redundancy for economic reasons is lawful but is not a statutory cause, so severance remains payable, and relocation or restructuring can carry extra obligations of notice and special payment.

Settlement is usually rational for both sides, but only after the numbers are calculated properly. We prepare a schedule of severance, notice, leave, bonus entitlement and social security consequences, then negotiate against that figure. A release signed without that schedule tends to be attacked later on the ground that the employee did not know what was being waived.

The employment contract can improve on the statutory position and cannot reduce it. Clauses that cut severance below the statutory scale, extend working hours past the lawful maximum, or waive leave are simply unenforceable, and their presence tends to persuade a court that the employer treats the Act as optional. Probation is a management tool, not a legal category that suspends rights: an employee dismissed in probation still receives notice and, once service crosses the statutory threshold, severance.

Fixed-term contracts avoid severance only where the work itself is genuinely of the kind the Act contemplates — a defined project of limited duration, seasonal work or work that is not part of the employer's ordinary business — with a definite start and end, no renewal, and completion at term. Rolling twelve-month contracts for ordinary staff are treated as continuing employment, and the accumulated service is what the severance calculation uses.

Work rules matter more than most employers expect. An employer with the threshold number of employees must have written rules covering working days, holidays, discipline and grievances, keep them available to staff, and follow them. Discipline imposed outside the published rules is the most common weakness we find when defending a claim, and the cheapest thing to fix in advance.

Working time, rest periods, weekly holidays and public holidays are set by statute, with overtime and holiday work paid at prescribed multiples of the hourly rate. Employees in genuine managerial roles are treated differently for overtime, but calling someone a manager does not create the exemption; the duties do. Time records are the employer's protection here, since in a dispute over unpaid overtime the absence of records rarely helps the employer.

Leave entitlements are cumulative in effect: annual leave after the qualifying period, sick leave with a medical certificate requirement above a threshold of days, business leave, maternity leave with the statutory employer-paid portion, and military service leave. Untaken statutory annual leave is payable on termination, which is a routine line item people forget when calculating a settlement.

Registration and remittance obligations run alongside. Employees must be enrolled with the Social Security Office within the statutory window, contributions withheld and remitted monthly, personal income tax withheld and reported, and the Workmen's Compensation Fund contribution paid. Late enrolment produces a surcharge and, in a dispute, undermines the employer's credibility on every other compliance question. For foreign staff, the work permit must match the actual position and workplace, because a mismatch is an immigration issue on top of a labour one.

An employee has two practical routes. A complaint to the labour inspector under the Labour Protection Act produces an order for statutory payments and is quick and free. A claim in the Labour Court covers the same statutory payments plus unfair dismissal compensation and contractual claims. Labour Court proceedings carry no court fees, hearings are conciliation-led, and the court can order reinstatement or compensation in lieu.

Time limits discipline both sides. Statutory money claims and the unfair-dismissal claim have their own periods running from termination, and an employee who waits loses the right rather than the argument. Employers, in turn, must act on misconduct promptly; a dismissal months after the event, or after the employer continued to accept the employee's work, reads as an afterthought.

Evidence in labour cases is documentary and mundane: the signed contract, the published work rules, warning letters with acknowledgement, time and payroll records, the dismissal letter, and the messages in which the decision was actually communicated. We build the file before the dismissal wherever the client comes to us in time, because the same case with the same facts is won or lost on whether those documents exist.