Section 166: Officers jointly abandoning public work
Statutory text (Thai original)
ผู้ใดเป็นเจ้าพนักงาน ละทิ้งงานหรือกระทำการอย่างใด ๆ เพื่อให้งานหยุดชะงักหรือเสียหาย โดยร่วมกระทำการเช่นนั้นด้วยกันตั้งแต่ห้าคนขึ้นไป ต้องระวางโทษจำคุกไม่เกินห้าปี หรือปรับไม่เกินหนึ่งแสนบาท หรือทั้งจำทั้งปรับ ถ้าความผิดนั้นได้กระทำลงเพื่อให้เกิดการเปลี่ยนแปลงในกฎหมายแผ่นดิน เพื่อบังคับรัฐบาลหรือเพื่อข่มขู่ประชาชน ผู้กระทำต้องระวางโทษจำคุกไม่เกินสิบปี และปรับไม่เกินสองแสนบาท หมายเหตุ: [อัตราโทษ แก้ไขเพิ่มเติมโดยมาตรา ๔ แห่งพระราชบัญญัติแก้ไขเพิ่มเติมประมวลกฎหมายอาญา (ฉบับที่ ๒๖) พ.ศ. ๒๕๖๐]
English translation
Whoever, being an official, abandons their work or does any act in order to bring the work to a standstill or to cause it damage, by jointly committing such act together with five or more persons, shall be liable to imprisonment not exceeding five years, or a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand baht, or both.
If the offence is committed in order to bring about a change in the law of the land, to coerce the government, or to intimidate the public, the offender shall be liable to imprisonment not exceeding ten years and a fine not exceeding two hundred thousand baht.
This English translation is provided for reference only and has not yet been firm-verified. Always rely on the Thai original.
Firm annotation
Section 166 penalises collective work stoppages by public officers, in effect an official strike or sabotage offence. The basic offence requires: (1) officials; (2) who abandon their work or act to halt or damage it; and (3) do so jointly with five or more persons. The second paragraph is an aggravated form carrying up to ten years where the purpose is to change the law of the land, coerce the government, or intimidate the public, reflecting the threat such collective action poses to public administration and order. The five-person threshold is an essential element: a stoppage by fewer than five officers falls outside this section. It sits within the Malfeasance in Office title and protects the continuity of State functions.
Why this matters in practice
The basic charge exposes each participant to up to five years, and the aggravated form to up to ten, so this is a serious charge in a coordinated public-sector action. As a malfeasance offence it cannot be settled privately. The most important defensive point is the five-person threshold and proof that the accused actually joined a concerted act to halt or damage the work, rather than being individually absent or acting alone. The aggravated paragraph adds a specific political purpose that the prosecution must prove separately. Officials considering or accused of collective action should take legal advice before relying on any labour or protest justification, which does not automatically apply to State officers.
Cited in 6 Supreme Court decisions (1972 to 2024)
Selected citing decisions
- Decision 1855/2567 (2024)
- Decision 2178/2536 (1993)
- Decision 127/2524 (1981)
- Decision 1570/2515 (1972)
- Decision 7768/2548 (2005)
- Decision 6092/2564 (2021)
This list is selected automatically, weighted towards judgments that turn on this section rather than ones that merely recite it when passing sentence. It has not yet been reviewed by the firm.
Most often cited alongside
Sections that appear in the same judgments as this one most often. The figure is the number of decisions.
Counted across the firm's corpus of 83,652 Supreme Court decisions, 1921 to 2026. The count is complete; the stated year range trims rare outliers so it describes where the citations actually sit. These figures are computed by us and are not official court statistics. How we count these, and what we measured
Frequently asked questions
How many officials are needed for a Section 166 offence?
The basic offence requires five or more officials acting together to abandon or halt the work. A stoppage involving fewer than five officers falls outside this section.
When does the ten-year penalty apply under Section 166?
The heavier penalty of up to ten years applies where the joint action is done to bring about a change in the law of the land, to coerce the government, or to intimidate the public.
Related guides on ThaiLawOnline
Cite this section
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Plain citation
Penal Code, s. 166 (Thailand) -
Academic citation
Penal Code (Thailand), s. 166. ThaiLawOnline, https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-166/ (accessed 17 August 2026). -
Thai citation
ป.อ. มาตรา 166 -
Permalink
https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-166/ -
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<blockquote cite="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-166/"><p>Whoever, being an official, abandons their work or does any act in order to bring the work to a standstill or to cause it damage, by jointly committing such act together with five or more persons, shall be liable to imprisonment not exceeding five years,…</p><footer>Penal Code, s. 166 (Thailand) — <a href="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-166/">ThaiLawOnline</a></footer></blockquote>
The Thai text is authoritative. The English is an unofficial translation by ThaiLawOnline, free to reuse with attribution.