Labour Relations and Development of Dispute Resolution in Thailand

Abstract

The Labour Relations Act of the Kingdom of Thailand B.E. 2518 prescribes various procedures of dispute resolution in order to terminate labour disputes arising between employers and employees. Notwithstanding, the Labour Relations Act still lacks of effective protection for the trade union in organizing activities regarding the preservation of the rights and advantages of the workers particularly the collective bargaining which the provision is still totally unclear. Thus, the enforcement of the Labour Relations law especially the dispute resolution has not already succeeded. Particularly in practice whilst the disputes arising between the employers and the employees, the Parties to the dispute scarcely apply the existed legal procedures to terminate the issues due to the fact that the appliance of the law is ineffective especially for the employees encountering with the unfair labour practices, always possess inferior capability to bargain. Accordingly, the issue of the dispute resolution in the Labour Relations Act is emerging whether the present dispute settlement mechanism should be revised as well as the Collective Bargaining should be one of the procedures or not. According to the studies and research of the issues in Thailand together with foreign countries, it can be concluded that the Collective Bargaining for dispute resolution should be encouraged promptly in order to develop the Labour Relations law in Thailand by ratifying the ILO Conventions No.87, the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, and No.98, the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention for the purpose of ameliorating the labour dispute resolution procedures to become more effective and to balance the bargaining power between the employers and the employees which is the fundamental human rights to promote equality, the main purpose of labour law enforcement.