Hundreds of Thai hotels seek aid to protect employees

Will the Thai Social Security Office compensate hundreds of hotels pursuing emergency assistance? Hotels are doing it hard as tourism has come to a virtual halt inside Thailand and hotels are either closing or scaling back their operations substantially.

Yesterday, The Thai Hotel Associations sent a letter to the Thai Chamber of Commerce notifying them that hundreds of hotels are seeking emergency assistance from the government, to protect employees during the temporary closure of Thai hotels due to the spread of the Covid-19 virus.

However, according to ‘Section 75′ of the Labour Protection Act, hotels operators must cover 75% of employees’ salaries when shutting down their businesses. But at times like this, when occupation rates have tanked, most hotel operators are running out of cash and can’t make those payments to employees. Hence the THA is requesting for more measures to support employees and hotel operators

Chairman of the chamber Kalin Sarasin, says…

“The THA asked the government to open a registry for hotels that have to temporarily stop operations because of the ‘force Majeure’ under Section 79-1 of the Social Security Act. If the government authorises this measure, the office can pay 50% of salaries to employees for 180 days.”

“This is an urgent issue for the chamber. We’ll submit the request to the centre for the resolution of emergencies, aiming to settle it soon, because as up to a hundred hotels have suspended their businesses.”

“Operators in some provinces will not have this problem, as there is a clear official order to close hotels in the area, meaning employees automatically have protection under Section 79-1.”

Tourism and Sports Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn says that, “he asked the THA to submit the letter to both the Tourism and Sports and Labour Ministries directly on Monday for further discussion.”

Hundreds of hotels around Thailand have already closed their doors.

SOURCE: Bangkok Post