Night Duty, Standby, On-Call and Travel Time: Does It Count as Working Time in Thailand?

Owners and HR teams tend to meet this question all at once. A technician on the weekly roster is phoned at 1 a.m. A driver sits waiting for a passenger for three hours. An engineer drives to an out-of-town site before dawn on a Sunday. For each case, which time counts as working time and which does not? You cannot answer by asking only "is a duty allowance paid?". This guide stays on duty rosters, standby and travel. For work instructions sent by LINE after hours, see the existing guide on supervisors giving instructions by LINE.

For an overall labour review of the company, see the labour compliance audit guide. If the matter has already reached the stage of recovering money, see the guide on unpaid wages and overtime. This guide answers the earlier question: which time has to be counted in the first place.

The short answer

The question that decides this is not a label such as "duty" or "standby". It is how far the employer controls the employee's time and place during that period. If the employee must be on the employer's premises, must reply within minutes, or cannot go anywhere, the period approaches working time. If the employee goes home, sleeps and lives normally, with only a duty to answer the phone when called, the waiting is usually the employee's own time, but the moment the employee starts work, that time counts as working time.

The law The Labour Protection Act B.E. 2541 (LPA) section 23 sets normal working time at no more than 8 hours a day and 48 hours a week (7 hours a day and 42 hours a week for hazardous work). Section 24 bars overtime on working days unless the employee consents beforehand each time, with exceptions for continuous work that would be damaged by stopping, emergency work, or work set by ministerial regulation. Section 25 deals with holiday work. Section 26 caps overtime plus holiday work by ministerial regulation. Section 27 deals with rest breaks. Sections 61 to 63 set overtime and holiday-work rates, and sections 65 and 66 remove certain rights for certain kinds of work. Section 23/1, added in 2023, gives employees the right to refuse contact outside working hours unless they have agreed in writing in advance. It is explained in the LINE guide.

Our practical view Do not write down only a duty allowance. Write three things: the conditions of waiting (where the employee must be, how many minutes to respond), the pay for waiting, and how work after a call-out is counted and paid. The law does not set a rate for pure waiting pay. But if the employer controls the employee so tightly that the employee cannot use the time freely, the risk is that the waiting itself is treated as work, and if it falls outside normal hours, back overtime follows.

Hypothetical example A small rice-mill machinery maintenance company in Khon Kaen puts a technician, Thana, on a one-week-in-turn on-call roster. He may stay at home and must answer within 15 minutes. On Wednesday night, Mali, the HR manager, is told that Thana was called to a mill in Chum Phae district. He left home at 12:30 a.m., finished the repair at 2:00 a.m., reached home at 3:30 a.m., and started normal work in the morning. Mali has to decide what the waiting, the travel and the repair each count as, and whether the company ever agreed any of this in writing.

1. The deciding question: how far does the employer control time and place?

No single criterion answers every case. Ask these in order.

• Must the employee stay on the employer's premises or at the site? If the employee cannot go home, the period is closer to working time.
• Within how many minutes must the employee answer or arrive? If the window is so short that personal errands are impossible, that is control.
• Can the employee sleep, eat, drive elsewhere or drink alcohol? The more restrictions, the closer the waiting is to real work.
• How often is the employee called? If calls come almost every night, waiting is part of the job rather than an occasional event.
• Is the employee doing the employer's work while waiting? For example watching a screen, answering customers, minding machines or moving goods.
• Can the employer set and check start and finish times? This matters for section 65 (7), see Part 4.

This test does not depend on citing Supreme Court case numbers. A court looks at the facts: how far was the employee actually under the employer's command during that period? Evidence therefore matters more than the label in the policy. A policy may say "on-call is not working time", but if in practice the employee is ordered to reach the site within 10 minutes, the court looks at the practice.

2. Table of patterns: how each is usually viewed, and proof

This table is general guidance, not an answer for every case. The real outcome depends on the agreement, the facts and the ruling of the labour inspector or the court.

The word "usually" in the table is not a promise of how it will always be counted. It is a direction in which to plan your paperwork.

3. Hours, consent, the cap and the rates

Normal hours (section 23) The employer must announce normal working hours of no more than 8 hours a day and 48 hours a week. Where the nature of the work means start and finish times cannot be announced for each day, the employer and employee agree daily hours of no more than 8 and weekly hours of no more than 48. This bears directly on duty and off-site work.

Consent (sections 24 and 25) Overtime on a working day needs the employee's consent beforehand each time, except for continuous work, emergency work, or work set by ministerial regulation, and then only as far as necessary. A single signature in the contract saying "I consent to overtime every time" is therefore risky. The safer course is consent per duty period and a record of each call-out. For holiday work, section 25 sets exceptions for continuous work, emergency work, certain businesses and other necessary work with the employee's prior consent each time.

The cap (section 26) This section names no figure. It says overtime under section 24 paragraph 1 and holiday work under section 25 paragraphs 2 and 3, taken together, must not exceed the rate set by ministerial regulation, which is Ministerial Regulation No. 3 B.E. 2541: no more than 36 hours per week. Staff who are called out often should have a running weekly count.

Rest breaks (section 27) An employee must have a rest break of at least one hour a day after no more than 5 hours of continuous work, and if overtime of 2 hours or more follows normal hours, the employer must give a break of at least 20 minutes before overtime begins. There are exceptions for continuous work with the employee's consent and for emergency work. Section 27 does not require a compensatory day off after a night call-out, but rest should be dealt with in the policy.

Rates (sections 61 to 63)

How to work out the hourly rate for monthly-paid employees (section 68) and other detail are in the LINE guide.

4. Sections 65 and 66: who gets no overtime, and what they get instead

What section 65 says Employees with the authority, or given the work, listed in section 65 have no right to overtime under section 61 or holiday overtime under section 63. There are 9 categories. The ones relevant here are:

• (7) Work that by its nature must be done away from the workplace and whose working time by its nature cannot be fixed. Both parts are needed. A salesperson visiting several customers with no set times may fit. A technician with appointment slots who must check in at the site can have times fixed, so (7) probably does not apply.
• (8) Duty watching premises or property that is not the employee's normal job. For example an administrative employee who takes turns sleeping at the company over a festival. A security guard whose regular job is guarding the premises is outside it.
• (1) An employee with authority to act for the employer on hiring, rewards or dismissal, and (2) peddling or soliciting sales where the employer pays commission, together with (3) to (6) and (9) under ministerial regulation, are not the focus of this guide.

What they get instead Under section 65 itself, an employee doing work under (3) to (9), which includes (7) and (8), receives money equal to the hourly rate on a working day for the hours worked. This is not zero. An employee under (1) does not get this substitute. In every case section 65 ends by saying the rule applies "unless the employer agrees to pay overtime or holiday overtime", so if the employer has agreed, it must pay as agreed.

Section 66 removes only the right of a section 65 (1) employee to holiday-work pay under section 62, unless the employer agrees to pay it. It does not mean everyone within section 65 loses everything. Employees under (2) to (9) who work on a holiday are still entitled to holiday-work pay under section 62. Employers often misread this and pay nothing.

A caution: writing in the contract that "this position receives no overtime" does not bring the work within section 65 if the real work does not fit the listed kinds. A court looks at the actual nature of the work.

5. Designing a standby allowance and roster

The law sets no rate for an on-call allowance, so the company can design one, but it should contain these elements.

• A written policy. Announce it or put it in the work rules, and have employees acknowledge it before the roster starts. If a change alters the terms of employment, see the consent principles in the guide on reducing wages and benefits.
• Response time and distance. State how many minutes to respond and how many hours to reach the site. The shorter the time, the more the allowance should be and the greater the chance the waiting is treated as work.
• An allowance separate from pay for actual work. The allowance is paid per night or per week. Pay for actual work follows the hours worked, at not less than the rates in sections 61 to 63 where it is overtime.
• A minimum number of hours per call-out. Some companies count at least 2 hours once called out. That is company policy, not a legal requirement.
• Counting the journey both ways. State whether counting begins when the employee leaves home or starts the job and ends on getting home, so there is no later argument.
• Compensatory rest. State that if called out after midnight until a given hour, the employee starts later the next morning or rests.
• A weekly cap. Check that overtime plus holiday work does not exceed 36 hours a week under section 26 and the ministerial regulation.
• Consent per roster period. Have the employee confirm each roster period in writing or electronically in a form that can be retrieved.

Sample on-call policy clause (a sample; adapt it to the real work before use)

On-call policy no. ____  effective from ____
1. Duty holders: as per the weekly roster announced at least ____ days ahead.
   The employee confirms the roster by email or the company system before each period.
2. Conditions while waiting: at home or anywhere within ____ km of the site.
   Answer the phone within ____ minutes and reach the site within ____ hours.
   Personal time is not prohibited, but the employee must be ready to work when called.
3. On-call allowance: the company pays ____ per night / per week, separate from pay for actual work.
4. When called out: time is counted from ____ to ____ (including / excluding the journey both ways).
   Minimum hours per call-out: ____ hours.
   Time beyond normal hours is paid at not less than the rates under the Labour Protection Act.
5. Consent: the employee confirms for each roster period that they consent to work outside hours when called.
   The employee may decline for a personal necessity by telling the supervisor before the period starts.
6. Rest: if called out until after ____ hrs, the next day starts no earlier than ____ hrs.
7. Records: the on-duty employee fills in the call-out log within 24 hours.
   The supervisor checks and signs. HR keeps the log for not less than ____ years.

Sample call-out log

Date ____  On-duty employee ____  Called by ____
Time call answered ____   Left home ____   Arrived at site ____
Work started ____  Work finished ____   Arrived home ____
Nature of work ____   Job order no. ____   Company vehicle used yes/no ____
Emergency yes/no ____   Employee consents for this call-out yes/no ____
Employee signature ____  Supervisor ____  Date checked ____

Continuing the hypothetical: if the company had this policy and log, Mali could count the waiting that night as the on-call allowance, the period from leaving home at 12:30 a.m. to arriving home at 3:30 a.m. as working time under the policy, and the hours beyond normal hours as overtime under section 61. If the company had no records, Thana would have to prove it himself from his call history and phone data, and the employer would find it hard to prove the period was not working time.

6. Evidence for the employee and for the employer

For the employee who wants to show the time counts

• Duty roster and duty orders, which show that the employer required waiting and on what conditions.
• Call history, messages and emails, which show when the employee was called, what was ordered and when the employee replied.
• GPS data from the employee's own vehicle or phone, showing departure, arrival and return times. It must be the employee's own data or data lawfully obtained.
• Job orders, site photos and daily logs, showing when the work finished.
• Expense claims for travel, tolls and fuel that the company approved, which confirm the journey was on instruction.

Electronic messages and emails can be used as evidence under the Electronic Transactions Act B.E. 2544, sections 7 and 11. Do not access another person's phone, email or accounts without permission, and collecting employee location data needs a legal basis under the PDPA.

For the employer

• A written policy that the employee acknowledged, with its start date.
• Records of consent for each roster period, under sections 24 and 25.
• A call-out log signed by the employee and the supervisor.
• Payslips showing the on-call allowance and overtime itemised.
• Evidence that the work falls within section 65 (7) or (8), if the employer relies on the exception. For example the nature of the job, the absence of a fixed schedule, or that it is not the employee's normal duty. The employer needs to be the one to show this.

If the employee chooses to complain to the Labour Department or sue in the labour court, see the guide on the labour inspector or the court.

7. Common employer mistakes

• Writing that "the duty allowance includes all overtime" without working out how far real hours exceed normal hours. If the allowance is lower than the law requires for the hours worked, the shortfall is still owed.
• Relying on section 65 (7) when the employer can set arrival times at the site and check departure times.
• Paying only the duty allowance and nothing for work done when actually called out.
• Not counting the journey to and from a distant site when the employer ordered and controlled the journey.

8. Checklist

Employer and HR

• Sort all duty arrangements (on-site duty, on-call at home, standby at a site, travel) using the table in Part 2
• Write a policy stating response time, distance and restrictions while waiting
• Separate the on-call allowance from pay for actual work and set a minimum number of hours per call-out
• Have employees confirm consent for each roster period
• Check the 36-hour weekly cap under section 26 and the ministerial regulation

Records and evidence

• Use the call-out log and have the supervisor sign within 24 hours
• Keep rosters, call history, job orders, travel documents and vehicle logs
• If relying on section 65 (7) or (8), hold evidence of the nature of the work
• Check the PDPA legal basis before using GPS to track employees

Employees checking their own rights

• Note the time of answering, departure, arrival, start and finish of work, and arrival home each time
• Check whether your position really falls within section 65 before concluding you get no overtime
• If called out on a holiday, check sections 62, 63 and 71

Further reading

• Supervisor instructions by LINE after work or on holidays: can you claim overtime? — instructions sent outside hours and the right to refuse contact under section 23/1
• Unpaid wages and overtime: how to recover them — what to do and what time limits apply once overtime has gone unpaid
• Labour compliance audit for employers — reviewing labour paperwork and evidence across the whole company before a dispute
• Labour inspector or labour court — comparing the two routes when overtime has not been paid
• Employers who want to reduce wages, workdays or benefits — when you need to adjust a long-standing duty or on-call allowance

Whether a period counts as working time depends on how far the employer really controls the employee's time and place, not on its name or on the duty allowance paid.

We help review duty and on-call policies, prepare agreements and call-out logs, calculate overtime and travel pay, and advise when a dispute arises. For an initial consultation, call +66 92 254 2045 or send us the details. See also labour law compliance services.

This guide is published by Suwanvara Law Firm — a Khon Kaen law firm established in 1986. General information only, not legal advice on a specific matter.