“The Cabinet meeting today (29 Oct 19) has approved a special holiday for one day on Monday 30 December, 2019 to be a long holiday during the New Year festival,” the PR Dept Phuket office posted in a notice on its official Facebook page late yesterday.
Citing the Cabinet announcement, the post also noted that heads of government offices providing essential services were to consider keeping their offices open in light of the essential services being provided to the public are to be made a priority.
The notice also stated, “State enterprises, financial institutions and the private sector, including the Bank of Thailand, are to consider the holiday as appropriate by law under the Ministry of Labour.”
To this, Bussaya Chaipeum, Chief of the Phuket Public Relations Office, explained this morning, “This means that state enterprises, financial institutions and private businesses can decide for themselves whether to give their staff the day off as long as they comply with labour law, but government officials must take the day off on Dec 30.”
Under Thai labour law, employees are entitled to 13 national holidays per year, plus a minimum of six days of vacation after one year of consecutive work.
In announcing the Cabinet holiday resolution yesterday, Government speaker Naruemon Phinyosinnawat at Government House noted that the purpose of the public holiday is to help drive the economy and supporting businesses related to tourism during the New Year holidays.