Chaophya Park Hotel Bangkok
unveils its best kept secret garden, Park Organic Veggies
Andrew
Wood
This green ambition was initiated in 2008 utilising vacant land near
the hotel’s 247 yard golf driving range for a more innovative purpose. The
vegetables are grown without the aide of chemical fertilisers, herbicides or
pesticides. Our patch is, as its name suggests, wholly organic. A number of
hydroponic items are also being grown under carefully controlled conditions,
using only natural rainwater and sunlight.
Located in the 9.8 rai of land that makes up the Chaophya Park Hotel’s
spacious grounds, the leafy garden also houses a mushroom nursery surrounded
by herbaceous shrubs of Chinese kale, celery, cucumber, lettuce, spinach and
many other greens and herbs. A substantial portion of this top quality
produce is transferred to our kitchens ready to be proudly served in various
outlets throughout the hotel, while a selection will be elegantly packaged
under the Park Organic Veggies label. Plans are in hand to produce a wide
range of vegetable and meat produce and sauces, under our own brand.
The team will be happy to walk you around this environmentally friendly
garden to show you the fruits of our labour.
Chaophya Park Hotel is a member of the Thai Hotel Association’s Green Leaf
programme and was the recent recipient of the Environmentally Friendly Hotel
award from the Ministry of Tourism.
Central opens
fine food hall
Pramote Channgam
Whatever happens to be your favorite food, chances are good that you will find
it at the large new food hall at Central Pattaya Center, where there are “5,000
food items on menus from all over the globe.”
Ian
Pai, managing director of Central Food Retail.
On January 23, on the ground floor of Central Pattaya Beach, Ian Pai, managing
director of Central Food Retail, opened the Central Food Hall with Nick
Wrightmyer, assistant manager for international products and winery.
The company has invested 100 million baht in this venture.
Central Food Hall aims to provide premium food products from all over the world
ranging from fine meats, cheeses, seafood, fruits and vegetables, to ready-made
foods.
Food experts are available to provide advice on tasty delicacies. The winery
section, for example, has 600 different wines kept at optimal temperature. The
bakery bakes a wide variety of both eastern and western pastries, cakes and
breads.
Managing Director Pai said he strongly believes in the potential of Pattaya’s
economy since the city is only second in popularity to Bangkok.
It is the center of tourism in the eastern region with 6 million tourists
visiting annually, and therefore worth the multi-million baht that the company
has invested in its mall.
Sacking an employee - what employers should know
David Tan
Under such bleak economic climate, it is bad enough for businesses to
have to close and lay off employees. However, employers should not make this
worse by exposing themselves to unfair dismissal claims by laid off employees.
To minimize the possibility of such claims, employers need to be aware of
employees’ legal entitlements when terminating employees.
Gross misconduct?
If the employee has committed a gross misconduct, an employer can
terminate the employee’s employment without having to provide any prior notice
on termination and pay severance pay to the employee. This is also known as
termination with cause.
Gross misconduct is serious misconduct by the employee, e.g. employee having
been imprisoned by a final judgment of a court (except for offenses arising out
of negligent acts or for petty offenses) or employee performing an act of gross
negligence which causes the employer to suffer severe losses.
Termination
without cause
Generally, if the employee’s employment contract had been terminated
not due to gross misconduct (also known as termination without cause), the
employee shall be entitled to the following:
(a) Prior Notice on Terminating Employment Contract
Prior notice on terminating the employee’s employment has to be issued by the
employer to the employee. Minimum prior notification period has to be according
to that provided for in the employment contract, working rules or notice of the
employer.
However, the minimum prior notification period must not be shorter than that
prescribed by law. According to the labor protection law, this period must at
least be one wage cycle of the employee. For example, if an employee is
receiving wages on a monthly basis and the employer issued prior notice on
termination to the employee on February 10, 2009. The employee’s last working
day will be March 31, 2009, not March 10. The employee’s wage cycle is March 1
to March 31.
(b) Damages In-Lieu (Instead) of Prior Notice on Employment Termination
Alternatively, if the employer wants to terminate the employee’s employment
immediately and have the employee leave work, the employer shall have to pay the
employee’s wages up to the employee’s last working day and then terminate the
employee.
(c) Severance Pay
The employer has to pay the employee severance pay. In Thailand severance pay is
calculated based on the latest wages amount of the employee and the duration of
his or her employment.
Any fixed benefits paid to the employee must be considered as part of wages and
be included in severance pay calculation. Fixed benefits are, for example, an
employer pays the employee 2,000 baht every month for traveling expenses,
regardless of how much traveling the employee did.
Section 118 of the Labor Protection Act B.E. 2541 (1998) provides for the amount
of severance pay payable to the employee:
If the employee had worked for 120 days but not 1 year, severance pay amount is
equivalent to 30 days of wages.
If the employee had worked for 1 year but not 3 years, severance pay amount is
equivalent to 90 days of wages.
If the employee had worked for 3 years but not 6 years, severance pay amount is
equivalent to 180 days of wages.
If the employee had worked for 6 years but not 10 years, severance pay amount is
equivalent to 240 days of wages.
If the employee had worked for more than 10 years, severance pay amount is
equivalent to 300 days of wages.
Example of severance pay calculation
XYZ Company Limited employed Mr. B as the employee at a monthly
salary of 10,000 baht. Each month, XYZ Company Limited also provides 2,000 baht
to Mr. B as his traveling expenses.
Now, after having worked for 2 years and 3 months at XYZ Company Limited, his
employment was terminated due to poor performance. Mr. B severance pay will be
calculated as follows:
(10,000 baht + 2,000 baht ) ÷ 30 days = 400 baht wages per day
After having worked for 2 years and 3 months, Mr. B is entitled to severance pay
equivalent to 90 days of wages; i.e., Mr. B had worked for more than 1 year but
not 3 years. Therefore, 400 baht wages per day x 90 days = 36,000 baht severance
pay.
Note: The employer also does not have to give prior notice on termination or pay
severance pay to the employee if the employee completed a fixed period
employment contract; i.e., an employment contract whereby its employment
starting date and ending date are clearly specified in the employment contract.
(Please see my article “Fixed Period Employment Contract for a Wise Employer” in
Pattaya Mail newspaper December 12, 2008 issue for the legal meaning of a fixed
period employment contract)
(d) Vacation Days Not Used
Any annual vacation days that the employee is entitled to and are not yet used
shall be paid to the employee.
Final Tip
The employer must bear in mind that if the employee deemed that he or
she had been unfairly terminated by the employer due to whatsoever reasons, even
after having received prior notice of termination and severance pay, the
employee still has the right to file an unfair dismissal claim against the
employer at the Labor Court.
This risk can be minimized by having the employee sign a letter of release to
waive the right of making any future claims against the employer.
David Tan is a Lecturer of Business Law at Asian University and author of the
book “A Primer of Thai Business Law”, available online at www.chulabook.com or
call 038 233 490 to order. In Bangkok, the book is available at Asiabooks and
Kinokuniya bookstores. Any questions or comments to David should be sent to
[email protected]
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