THAILAND Law and Practice Contributed by: Nam-Ake Lekfuangfu, Theeranit Pongpanarat and Panitan Pruksakasemsuk, Baker McKenzie (Bangkok)
operation of employees in order to prevent them from harm to life, physique, mentality and health. Moreover, an employee is entitled to receive compen - sation under the Workmen’s Compensation Act B.E. 2537 (1994) if the injury or death is due to work in the course of protecting the interest of the employer, or complying with the commands of the employer, among others, regardless of their place of work. Social security The employer is required to register any remote-work - ing employee with the Social Security Fund and make contributions to the fund similar to those of other reg - ular employees. 5.2 Sabbaticals There are no statutory sabbatical leaves under the LPA; the most similar concept is the annual holiday requirement. As noted in 1.5 Other Employment Terms , the employer is required to provide at least six annual holidays per year to employees who have worked for an uninterrupted period of one year. The employer and the employee may agree in advance to accumulate and carry forward any unused annual holiday to the following years. Some employers may allow employees to take extended breaks from work in the form of unpaid leave for a specific period, or they may offer paid sabbati - cal leave in addition to the annual holidays as part of their benefits package. If an employer provides such leaves, there are no restrictions, as these leaves are considered part of the non-statutory benefits. Con - sequently, the employer has the flexibility to set the requirements and duration of the leave as they see fit. 5.3 Other New Manifestations There are some interesting new developments on the nature of work in Thailand, including the following. • Fully remote, hybrid or flexible work arrangements are becoming the norm for office workers in Thai - land, as many employers allow employees to work remotely either fully or in a hybrid manner, where a certain number of days in a week will be remote and the rest will be attending the office to work as usual. Certain employers also consider desk shar -
ing to accommodate the shrinking size of office space as more fully remote, hybrid or flexible work arrangements are being adopted. • An increase in cross-border personnel engagement is due to the rapid adoption of information technol - ogy, allowing for more effective and efficient ways to work remotely. However, overseas employers should still consider legal issues in engaging per - sonnel in Thailand from abroad, including: (a) appropriate and legally permissible forms of engagement; (b) work permit and visa requirements; (c) restrictions on foreign business activities in Thailand; and (d) tax issues in connection with such cross-bor - der personnel engagement. • Employers in various industries are seeking to utilise AI better. Work and employee regulations may have to be adopted to regulate the use of AI by employees to perform their work, particularly to address risks regarding intellectual property and confidentiality issues. • Adoption of independent contractors is increas - ingly becoming more common. An independent contractor is an individual who operates inde - pendently or provides services to an organisation without being directly employed. This role can be described in various terms, such as consultant, freelancer, advisor, or independent contractor. In this context, the relationship between an independ - ent contractor and an organisation is governed by a contractor-hirer arrangement under a service or con - tractor agreement, rather than an employer-employee relationship under an employment agreement. The organisation is not obliged to provide most statutory employment protections and entitlements. However, regardless of the terms stated in the engagement or service agreement, there is a risk of misclassification. If a court determines that the actual working relation - ship resembles that of an employer and employee, the organisation may be subject to employment-related obligations.
676 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook