Following the introduction of the programme and participants by Ms Suthinee of the OHW, Dr. Chaiyuth Chavalitnikul, Senior Expert on OSH in the MOLSW, presented photos showing working conditions of home-based workers in different provinces in Thailand. This provided participants with clear images on OSH problems of homeworkers in Thailand such as exposure to chemicals, dust, dangerous machines, and lack of ergonomics.

The 8^th National Economic and Social Development Plan aimed at increasing labour protection to homeworkers. A National Committee for the protection and development of home-based workers was established. The current Labour Protection Act covered only formal sector workers and the large number of workers by the informal sector were not yet adequately covered by the labour law. Section 22 of the Labour Protection Act indicated that decrees should be developed for providing necessary protection towards unprotected workers. It was important to gradually protect homeworkers by taking a step-by-step approach. ILO Convention on Home Workers provided a useful guideline for the Government in this respect. Thailand needed to adjust its existing OSH policies and strategies to provide necessary protection to homeworkers and local laws needed adjustment. Employers and subcontractors should be involved in the protection schemes for homeworkers, thus demonstrating social responsibility of business in labour protection. It was also important to increase homeworkers' bargaining power to enable them to negotiate with their employers and contractors for example on wages. The Government should also retrain their labour inspectors to deal better with homeworkers' issues. It was useful to learn from experiences from other countries. For example, Japan had committees to set wages of homeworkers in each province and labour inspectors monitored whether the agreed wages were observed.

Home-based workers needed to know the OSH risks of their work and how to prevent them. Education was the key to the success to improve OSH of home-based workers. The MOLSW, the MOPH, NGOs and concerned agencies needed to provide training to home-based workers. The ILO’s WISE training methods could contribute because WISE was easy to implement. Concerted efforts of relevant organizations and trained human resources at local levels were essential for success as knowledge of local conditions was crucial. It was of particular importance to set a framework to create awareness of home-based workers on OSH. Laws should provide practical and effective guidelines to formulate such a framework. The existing Labour Protection Law and Workmen's Compensation Law needed to be reviewed. Home-based workers also needed to work together and not individually. Consolidating home-based workers' groups was essential to create better working conditions.