Thailand has amended the Labor Protection Act to significantly expand family leave benefits and strengthen employment protections, effective December 7, 2025. The Labor Protection Act (No. 9) B.E. 2568 (2025), published in the Government Gazette on November 7, 2025, provides enhanced maternity and paternity benefits, introduces new childcare leave provisions, and extends labor protections to certain public sector contractors. Key changes introduced by the amendments are detailed below. Extended Maternity Leave Female employees are now entitled to up to 120 days of maternity leave per pregnancy, increased from 98 days. Employers must pay full wages for 60 days, increased from the current 45 days. New Childcare Leave for Health Complications Female employees who have taken maternity leave are entitled to an additional 15 days of leave to care for newborns with health complications, disabilities, or conditions that could lead to future medical risks. This leave requires a medical certificate and is compensated at 50% of the employee’s regular wage. New Paternity Leave Male employees are now entitled to 15 days of paid paternity leave to support their spouse or partner during childbirth. This new leave allowance may be taken before or within 90 days after childbirth, with employers required to pay full wages for all 15 days. Protection for Public Sector Contractors The law extends protection to individuals engaged under service contracts with government agencies, including central, regional, and local administrations, state enterprises, and public organizations. When such workers are supervised or controlled in a manner similar to employees, the contracting government agencies must provide them with rights and benefits equivalent to those under the Labor Protection Act, including remuneration, weekly holidays, public holidays, annual leave, sick leave, regulated working hours, and rest periods. New Annual Reporting Requirement All employers with 10 or more employees must now submit an

Thailand has introduced a comprehensive overhaul of its tax litigation procedures that will significantly impact how tax disputes are handled. The Regulations for Tax Cases B.E. 2568 (2025) take effect on November 24, 2025, and repeal the prior B.E. 2544 (2001) regulations in full. These regulations support the implementation of the Act on the Establishment of the Tax Court and Tax Case Procedure (No. 3) B.E. 2568 (2025), which expands the Tax Court’s jurisdiction to certain criminal tax matters. Published in the Government Gazette on October 14, 2025, the regulations have been reorganized into three parts covering civil cases, criminal cases, and forms, and are designed to accelerate proceedings, tighten evidentiary discipline, and modernize court operations. Structural Reform and Scope The prior regime governed only civil tax disputes. Under the new framework, the regulations introduce a dedicated chapter for criminal cases alongside updated civil procedures, as the Tax Court now has express authority to adjudicate specified criminal tax offenses. Select mechanisms applied in civil case proceedings, such as electronic communication, recording testimony, and appointing experts, also apply to criminal proceedings mutatis mutandis where they do not conflict with criminal procedure. Civil Cases: Evidence Submission, Deadlines, and Scheduling Parties must submit, together with the witness list, originals of all documentary evidence, media, or electronic data (such as files, USB drives, or CDs), and all physical evidence in the party’s possession. Failure to submit any original within the deadline (see below) results in a loss of the right to adduce that item at trial, subject only to narrow exceptions where submission is impossible due to force majeure or where receipt of the evidence is indispensable to the interests of justice. The practical impact is that parties are now obligated to assemble and verify all original documents and data at the very

On September 15, 2025, Thailand’s Senate approved a draft amendment to the Labor Protection Act (LPA), which is currently awaiting publication in the Government Gazette. The amendment, which will take effect 30 days after publication, extends labor protections to certain service contractors working for state entities, enhances maternity and spousal support leave, and updates employer reporting obligations. Expanded Protections for State-Contracted Service Providers The amendment adds a section to the LPA that extends core labor protections to individuals engaged by government bodies under service contracts. This provision covers workers hired by central, regional, and local government agencies; state enterprises governed by the State Enterprise Labor Relations Act; public organizations; and other state agencies when these entities retain individuals under service procurement contracts (or similar arrangements) and exercise supervision, direction, and control over their work. In such cases, the hiring agencies must provide terms no less favorable than those required under the LPA for remuneration, weekly holidays, traditional holidays, annual leave, sick leave, maternity leave, working days and hours, and rest periods. Ministerial regulations will establish specific criteria for implementation. Disputes regarding rights and duties under this provision will fall under Labor Court jurisdiction. This change aligns the treatment of controlled service contractors with that of regular employees, addressing a longstanding coverage gap in the public sector. Enhanced Maternity Leave and New Caregiving Provisions The amendment includes a maternity leave entitlement of up to 120 days per pregnancy (an increase from the previous 98 days), unless otherwise prescribed by royal decree, and also introduces a new postnatal caregiving leave for mothers in complex medical situations who have used their childbirth leave, granting up to 15 additional days to care for children who are at risk of complications, have abnormalities, or have disabilities. This supplemental leave requires support from a medical

The Thai Arbitration Institute (TAI), a division of Thailand’s Office of the Judiciary, has taken a step toward harmonizing the tools available for dispute resolution. On August 8, 2025, the institute formally launched the TAI Mediation Center (TAI-MC). Although the amendments to TAI’s Arbitration Rules that will govern the TAI-MC have not yet been finalized, the framework now under consideration suggests that TAI is positioning itself to become a more attractive venue for commercial dispute resolution. In the regime contemplated under the current version of the amendments, TAI proceedings will adopt an “arbitration-annexed mediation” mechanism—commonly termed the “Med-Arb” model—while preserving the procedural safeguards indispensable to arbitral neutrality. Mediation will be entrusted to a separate, dedicated mediator appointed under the TAI-MC who is precluded from serving on the arbitral tribunal in the same matter. By clearly separating the functions of mediator and arbitrator, the institute eliminates any risk that confidential information disclosed during mediation could influence the adjudicatory outcome if the parties do not settle. Only when all parties subsequently make a request may that same mediator assume arbitral duties in the case. The parties will retain substantial autonomy in selecting the mediator. They may either designate a mediator by mutual consent or invite the TAI-MC to appoint one from its authorized panel. TAI has announced its intention to curate that panel with particular emphasis on commercial expertise and cross-cultural negotiation skills, supplemented by ongoing professional training. Where the parties cannot agree on remuneration, the mediator’s fee will default to a tariff comparable to the TAI-MC’s cost schedule, which under the current version of the amendments will be approximately THB 45,000 for disputes in which the aggregate claims do not exceed THB 10 million, with incremental increases tied to higher claim values. This predictable cost matrix is aimed at enhancing