Thai Law Insights

Thai Work Permit Law: A Review of a Pernicious Legal Problem after Seven Years under the Current Law

Anutchakij Soontornraksa

The Emergency Decree Governing Management of Foreign Employment of 2017 or Thai Work Permit Law has been effective for nearly 7 years. Certain provisions regarding violations of the Thai Work Permit Law were suspended as a period of transition from 1 July to 31 July 2017 by virtue of the order of the Head of the National Council for Peace and Order No.33/2560. The rationale behind the Thai Work Permit Law is to set out permission system under law by the government agency to the extent necessary (to limit the government agency’s discretion) and to improve the government agency work integrity in terms of foreign work under systems (business foreign employment) and outside systems (foreign laborers’ employment).

The government agency in charge should follow and practice per the Thai Work Permit Law systems. Unfortunately, in actuality, some government officials lack legal knowledge under the Thai Work Permit Law and usually exercise personal discretion which may go beyond what is allowed by the law. As a result, foreign work permit applicants’ legal rights may be ignored.

Apart from that, the provisions of the Thai Work Permit Law per se, especially Section 4(6) wherein all foreigners who come to Thailand from time to time to attend a meeting may be exempted needing a work permit, provided that the Thai Cabinet must specify the detailed exemption. A question arose as to what sort of subordinate law should be issued to set out that attending a meeting in Thailand for a short period should not be subject to Thai work permit acquisition. This problem on appropriate subordinate law has not yet been clearly resolved under the status quo Thai work permit law.

However, in light of the above problem as to what sort of subordinate law should be issued to address this problem in the law, the Thai Work Permit Law as amended by The Emergency Decree Governing Management of Foreign Employment (No.2) of 2018 includes changes to Section 14 which provides for an exemption to the Work Permit requirement “for special cases necessary for protection of national security or national economy or protection of public disaster, the Ministry of Labor with the approval of the Cabinet, can allow any foreigner to come to work in Thailand with or without condition or with exemption from compliance with the Thai Work Permit Law”.

This amendment may help open for the Minister of Labor, with the approval of the Cabinet, to have a way out due to the abovementioned problem.