The voluntary dispute settlement process in Thailand is not quite efficient for the labour union system is not strong. The separation of private labour unions from the labour unions of public enterprise under the State Enterprise Labour Relation Act B.E. 2543 caused the labours and the employers to become unable to hold a common bargaining and the unions and the employers to resent voluntary settlement of labour disputes.
The research made a study about the factors which influence labour dispute settlement and the problem under such kind of process and also made a study on the recommendations of the International Labour Organization and the researcher also made a comparative law study by looking into other legal systems to look for ways to develop the voluntary labour dispute settlement of Thailand.
Apart from the problems stated above, I also found that the intervention of outsiders, also effect the common bargaining, the results of the bargaining did not cover the whole enterprise, the conciliation was not covered by a legislation, the voluntary process did not have a requirement on the qualifications of the third arbitrator or empire and above all there was not a single well recognized institution for the voluntary process of both parties labours and employer.
The comparative law study, also made a survey into the system of labour dispute settlement of U.S.A., UK, Germany, Japan, Malaysia and the Philippines, showed that the right to have a union and common bargaining for both the public sector and private sector and the right of the disputing parties to submit their dispute to a voluntary process, In spite of the fact that the dispute being under a compulsory settlement process and a competent dispute settlement institution are important to a successful voluntary labour settlement process.
After having made a survey about the problems in the process the researcher made a documentary study to couple with result of the comparative study and thereafter the researcher made an in depth interviews by choosing from those who had influence on the voluntary labour dispute settlement out of employers, labours of the government and officers. The result of the interviews had been put into the development of the process as proposed by the researcher.
The research finds that the labour relations of public and private sectors should not be combined unless and until the Thai labour relation system is well developed, secondly, there should be only one union in each enterprise and its members should compose of both blue collar and white collar, once the common bargaining begin there should be no further demands submitted and thirdly the result should cover each and every employee of the enterprise until the next round of agreement. A legislation on conciliation should be put in place in Thailand and as to the voluntary labour dispute settlement there should be an amendment on the qualifications of arbitrators, the challenge of arbitrators, the recognition of the award and the recognition of voluntary labour dispute settlement process in public enterprise.
The researcher thereby proposed that there should be a revision of the Labour Relation Act B.E. 2518, regulating labour unions, common bargaining, conciliation and arbitration and a revision of the State Enterprise Labour Relation Act B.E. 2543. In addition he proposed that an institute for voluntary labour dispute settlement should be setup together with rules on conciliation and arbitration and code of ethics for conciliation and arbitration as well.