Workation in Thailand: How it works – and what you need to consider legally

The growing labor shortage is leading to a shift from an employer-driven to an employee-driven market. This means that companies have to fight for qualified employees. Employees are increasingly demanding additional employee benefits in addition to salary. One such benefit is the option to work remotely from abroad, known as workation . This is a combination of work and vacation. The auditing and consulting firm PwC conducted a comprehensive study on workation in Germany. The study found that for 57 percent of respondents, the option to work remotely from abroad is an important criterion when choosing a job. For around a third of respondents, a lack of workation options is even a disqualifying factor.

Nevertheless, only a few companies in Germany offer their employees workations. According to the German Economic Institute (IW), the number is around 15 percent. This is due, among other things, to additional obstacles related to labor, social, and tax law, according to the report. This is precisely where the startup Work Paradise – a provider of remote and decentralized work in Thailand – comes in. Learn how you can work remotely from Thailand with Work Paradise and what legal aspects you should consider when doing a workation here.

Work Paradise, based on Koh Samui on the Gulf of Thailand, was founded in 2020 by a self-proclaimed pioneering group of digital entrepreneurs. One of them is Max Tramboo. Tramboo is also the CEO and founder of Panematics VR, a provider of virtual tours of luxury hotels. The idea for Work Paradise, which he describes as a crazy idea, came to him during one of the worst tropical storms to hit Thailand. As the storm hit, he was sitting with friends over a bottle of rum. "There was a lot of nonsense being babbled," recalls Tramboo, who grew up in Thailand and is fluent in Thai.

He had previously traveled to Germany frequently to recruit programmers for his company, Panematics VR. The idea of ​​working as a programmer in Thailand was met with great enthusiasm in Germany. But Tramboo didn't want to "play nanny" for the programmers. "I want programming work. I don't need Germans working for me illegally from my office in Thailand," says Tramboo. So the crazy idea evolved into a respectable business idea – a workation offer in Thailand. The Work Paradise offer is aimed not only at Germans, but also at all EU citizens, Australians, and Israelis. In our reporting, we refer to the offer for German employees.

It works like this: Employees pause their German employment contract for a certain period of time, for example, as a sabbatical or unpaid leave. The German employee moves to Thailand and signs a new employment contract with the Thai company Work Paradise. Work Paradise, in turn, signs an agency agreement with the German employer. "The German company hires us to do the work of the German employee," explains Tramboo.

A kind of professional triangular relationship. According to employment lawyer Mariam El-Ahmad, founding partner of Rotwang Law, this is a matter of legal structuring. "Everything that isn't prohibited is permitted. There's no case law that explicitly prohibits this constellation," she explains in an interview with Gründerszene. Read here about the advantages for employers and employees, how to organize a workation well, and what legal considerations need to be made.