This page is an English summary of our Thai article on termination of employment. It is grounded in the Labour Protection Act and the Civil and Commercial Code so businesses can distinguish between ordinary termination, immediate dismissal for misconduct, and the payments that still remain due.
Written notice is the starting point
Section 17 of the Labour Protection Act provides that when the employment period is not fixed, either side may terminate by giving advance notice in writing at or before a wage payment date, so that termination takes effect on the following wage payment date. The law does not require more than three months of advance notice. The same section also states that a probationary contract is treated as an indefinite-period employment contract.
Pay in lieu of notice
If the employer wants the employee to leave immediately without waiting for the notice period to run, section 17/1 requires payment equal to the wages the employee would have received until the lawful effective termination date. This is separate from statutory severance and should be considered before the dismissal is implemented.
Statutory severance under section 118
- 120 days to less than 1 year: at least 30 days of wages.
- 1 year to less than 3 years: at least 90 days of wages.
- 3 years to less than 6 years: at least 180 days of wages.
- 6 years to less than 10 years: at least 240 days of wages.
- 10 years to less than 20 years: at least 300 days of wages.
- 20 years or more: at least 400 days of wages.
Section 118 also contains special rules for definite-period employment. Businesses should be careful before assuming that a contract is truly fixed-term in the statutory sense, because Thai law limits when that classification is available.
When severance may be withheld
Section 119 allows termination without severance only in specific cases, such as dishonesty, intentional criminal acts against the employer, willful damage, negligence causing serious damage, serious breach of lawful work rules after written warning, unjustified absence for three consecutive working days, or imprisonment by final judgment. These grounds should not be used casually, because if the employer cannot prove the legal ground properly, severance and other payments may still be due.
Other payments employers often miss
Termination analysis should not stop at notice and severance. Under the Labour Protection Act, accrued wage items, overtime, holiday-related payments, and annual holiday wages can still become payable on termination depending on the facts. A technically valid dismissal can still become expensive if final payment handling is incomplete.
Practical takeaway
In Thailand, lawful termination is mainly a process question. Employers should document the ground for termination, check whether written notice or pay in lieu is required, calculate severance under section 118, and confirm whether any section 119 exception is genuinely available before the employment ends.
Primary Thai sources used for this summary
- Labour Protection Act, especially sections 17, 17/1, 67, 118, and 119.
- Civil and Commercial Code, especially sections 582 and 583.
- The bilingual Thai-English labour law compilation in the local source files.