The Employers' Confederation of Thailand on Tuesday warned workers not to use social media or chat with friends online during office hours as their bosses can legally fire them without notice or compensation.
A recent survey of 500 federation-member companies found 31 employees were dismissed last year for non-business use of Internet services, according to a Daily News report quoting ECOT secretary-general Siriwan Romchatthong.
The most recent case involved an accountant at a privately-run firm who was still on probation. Her employer initially gave her a verbal warning after discovering that she used her office computer to chat with friends for at least an hour every day, causing her to hand in assignments late. The employer decided to terminate her after she refused to change her behaviour, Mrs Siriwan said.
Ecot's warning came after the Supreme Court recently upheld a Central Labour Court dismissal of a lawsuit filed against a company by an employee caught using an office computer for personal use several hours each day. The petitioner complained he was sacked without notice, which was unfair and required that he be compensated.
The court ruled that the plaintiff caused damage to his employer by spending several work hours on personal matters. Therefore the employer had the right to terminate his employment contract without notice or severance pay.
Manas Kosol, president of Confederation of Thai Labour, said he agreed that misuse of work time for online chat could damage companies, particularly those in the manufacturing sector.
However, for white-collar workers, cutting salary or termination is too severe a penalty for using social media during work hours. No employee had yet filed a complaint relating to the issue with the confederation, he said.