If you are infected with COVID and have to be quarantined for 14 days or more, it will be considered sick leave and you are entitled to receive your normal wages. However, if you have used your sick leave more than you have, your employer does not have to pay you your wages, but you will not be considered absent from work.
Because of the recent outbreak of the COVID-19 virus, in addition to the fear of the virus, another fear is the legal welfare of us working people.
The current situation has caused concern and confusion about the benefits that salaried workers should receive, causing social media to almost go up in flames.
Understanding sick leave
Many people are demanding clarity from the company, organization, and employer to come out and clarify. Some are asking questions: In conclusion, how do they start counting the days according to the rules that say “30 days of sick leave per year”?
Saturday, Sunday, and public holidays, do these need to be included?
And “How much leave do you take? Will you get paid or not!!!!”
Today, The Practical team has the answer to clear up your doubts.
If we were to use the rules and regulations of our country’s labor system as a reference, the unit directly responsible would be the Department of Labor Protection and Welfare, which would probably provide the most accurate information.
With a press conference from Ms. Aphinya Sucharittanan, Director-General of the Department of Welfare and Labor Protection, who came out to clarify and give an interesting answer as follows:
If the employee’s sick leave is less than 3 days, the employee does not need to provide a medical certificate.
And the “ right to receive wages ” according to Section 57, first paragraph, stipulates that employers
“Must pay wages” to employees “on sick leave” equal to “work day wages” throughout the leave period and not exceeding 30 days in 1 year.
If we have read this far, it is clear that if we are sick, especially in the situation of the COVID-19 outbreak where people work in the system (and outside the system), if we are infected with COVID, we can legally take sick leave and we are still entitled to receive our wages as usual.
But the question that is being asked with curiosity is how do we count our vacation days?
Especially for some patients who are sick, need to be treated, quarantined, or may have to wait for a bed to enter the system, it may take more than 30 days to stop working. So how do we count the days???
The Practical team then contacted the Labor Hotline 1546 of the Ministry of Labor and was informed that in the situation of being sick from the COVID-19 virus or possibly being sick from any other disease that requires longer treatment time than usual,
By law, we can request sick leave for real, not exceeding 30 days per year. To clarify this 30-day figure, “only working days will be counted.” Employers cannot include weekly holidays, public holidays, or even sneakily insert vacation days into our work.
Since the said holiday is considered a normal holiday that we are entitled to anyway, “there is no need to request leave.”
And employers do not have the right to count such holidays. Especially in the case of COVID-19, which may have to be extended beyond 30 days, employers must first deduct the normal holidays. If the total does not exceed 30 days, employees will be entitled to receive their normal wages.
If an “employee” receives continuous treatment for more than 30 days, starting from the 31st, will the employee have the right to continue requesting wages?
The answer is “No!” because the law clearly states that if an employee needs treatment for more than 30 days, the “employer” is not required to pay wages and the “employee” himself cannot request the right to receive wages. He will continue to receive wages as specified by law, up to a maximum of 30 days only. This is excepted in cases of illness caused by work and the “employer” agrees to take special responsibility for care.
And another interesting answer that makes working people like us worry, wonder, and feel concerned about our own work future, which will be shaken because we have to be treated for COVID-19.
If we take more than 30 days off work per year, will we be in trouble by being automatically notified of being terminated from employment?
The Practical team has an easy-to-understand answer for you. The Labor Hotline states that the law does not give employers this authority, or to put it simply:
Employers cannot dismiss employees who are sick from an epidemic or other illnesses after completing 30 days of sick leave. However, whether or not to continue employment depends on negotiations between employees and employers on a case-by-case basis. And these are the rights and conditions that are interesting during this epidemic crisis that The Practical team, a new generation of salarymen, has brought a little bit of knowledge to share with all salarymen.
Stay Safe, keep fighting…Takeshi
For more articles on labor law, please visit:
Resigning, is it necessary to give notice in advance? If I want to resign, is it necessary to wait up to 30 days?วัน?
