OPENING ADDRESSES
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Mr. Pornchai Yooparayong, Deputy Director General, Depart of Labour Protection and Welfare |
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Dr. Jukka Takala, Director, InFocus Programme on SafeWork, ILO Geneva |
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Opening addresses by
Mr.
Pornchai Yooprayong, Deputy Director General
Department of Labour Protection and Welfare
Dr. Takala, SafeWork Programme Director
Mr. Liu, Acting ILO Director, Bangkok Office
Distinguished participants:
I am very pleased to open the national tripartite workshop on OSH organized by the ILO. This workshop will reflect the great success of the two previous workshops at Pattaya, 27-28 May 1999, and Chiang Mai, 22-24 December 1999, which also focused on OSH Act and major hazard prevention in the workplace. Both workshops increased the attention of concerned people regarding two important issues.
The Department of Labour Protection and Welfare (DLPW) is responsible for protecting the health and safety of workers in Thailand. The DLPW fully recognizes the importance of measures such as law enforcement. OSH laws in Thailand are classified under the notifications of MOLSW (previously under the Ministry of Interior). Thus, the DLPW is revising and modifying current OSH legislation under the new Labour Protection Act (B.E. 2541; A.D. 1998) and classifying it under the provisions of the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare. Meanwhile, the OSH and Working Environment Act has been drafted as the master OSH law meeting international standards.
I am pleased to note that the occupational accident rate in Thailand has tended to decline in the last two to three years. However, chemical accidents still occur frequently. Therefore, the DLPW has established an ad hoc working group on chemical accidents prevention. Investigation and analysis of accidents and managing risks arising from the use of chemicals have been promoted.
To strengthen the measures mentioned above, the DLPW has taken coordinated actions with other authorities such as the Department of Industry, the Department of Health, and the Department of Medicine. Stress has also been placed on coordination and cooperation.
I would like to express my gratitude to the ILO for organizing such an important workshop. The workshop will provide a forum within which to increase our technical and administrative capacities.
I wish you every success in the workshop. I now declare the opening of our National Tripartite Workshop.
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Opening addresses by
Dr. Jukka Takala, Director
InFocus Programme on SafeWork, ILO Geneva
Khun Pronchai Yooprayong, Deputy Director General of the Department of Labour Protection and Welfare
Distinguished participants and guests; ladies and gentleman:
On behalf of the Director-General of the ILO, Mr. Juan Somavia, and Ms. Mitsuko Horiuchi, ILO Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific, I cordially welcome you to this National Tripartite Workshop on Occupational Safety and Health in Thailand.
When addressing the global problem of occupational accidents and diseases, ILO estimates provide grim annual figures: accidents and diseases together cause over 1.2 million fatalities world-wide annually. The poorest, the least protected, the least informed, and the least trained are the most effected. Work-related accidents and diseases have economical, social, political, and moral consequences.
For Thailand, let us start by focusing on encouraging steps in OSH development:
- A fixed percentage of interest from the workmen’s compensation fund was allocated for preventive and rehabilitative programmes.
- Since 1986, a National Safety Week has been organized annually.
- Safety officer training was organized as a key legal obligation of employers with 100 or more workers. More than 10,000 safety officers have been trained since 1985. In 1997, a ministerial notification on OSH personnel expanded the training programme, and 100,000 persons have been trained within a period of just over one year.
- Computerized information systems and Internet infrastructure were developed and are used for safety and health promotion and information dissemination.
Despite these positive developments, Thailand faces many common challenges:
- workers are generally unaware of hazards they are exposed to;
- preventive measures are taken by large enterprises, seldom by the small ones;
- there remains a need for a more coherent legal framework; and
- safety and health inspectorates are limited in the number of personnel and in technical expertise.
Indeed, major accidents in Thailand during the past 12 months have shaken us:
- the chemical explosion in a fruit-processing factory in Chiang Mai District;
- the Thai Oil fire in Chonburi; and
- the Thai Polycarbonate gas leak in Rayong.
Unsafe use of dangerous substances can lead to serious disasters, accidents or diseases.
What can the ILO offer its constituents? First, the ILO publication Preventing major industrial accidents in Asia: A guide has now been translated into Thai. This, we hope, will guide government agencies and employers’ and workers’ organizations in their efforts for major accident prevention.
The ILO Conventions and Recommendations provide basic principles for organizing OSH at both national and enterprise levels. At the workplace, workers’ protection is the primary responsibility of employers. The ILO Convention on Occupational Safety and Health, 1981 (No. 155) and the Convention on Occupational Health Services, 1985 (No. 161) contain provisions on establishing a national policy and implementing it at the national and enterprise levels. I would like to highlight the fact that active participation of both employers and workers are needed at national and enterprise levels.
For chemical safety, the ILO has adopted two major international instruments: the Chemicals Convention, 1990 (No. 170) and the Convention on Prevention of Major Industrial Accidents, 1993 (No. 174). The Chemicals Convention requires ratifying States to apply a coherent policy on the safe use of chemicals at work with respect to national conditions and practices and in consultation with employers and workers. The Prevention of Major Industrial Accidents Convention (No. 174) outlines the obligations, rights and duties of Government, employers, and workers alike. It aims at limiting the destructive potential of major accidents involving hazardous substances, and at keeping them from happening.
The ILO has recently published an advisory Programme of action for occupational safety and health in Thailand towards the 21st Century, available in both English and Thai. The report calls for priority action in developing a firm national policy and legal framework. Futhermore, the report draws our attention to other important key issues, including
- the need to expand workmen's compensation coverage;
- the need to strengthen the collection and analysis of data on occupational accidents and diseases; after all, statistics on occupational accidents and diseases are the basis for preventive actions as well as for programmes for sectors which have already been identified;
- the need for a better infrastructure to identify prevailing occupational diseases, and to promote preventive measures and the training of medical doctors;
- the need for establishing nationwide OSH training and information dissemination mechanisms; and
- the need to extend protection to all workers, including self-employed and home workers.
All of those present are experts on OSH. I am delighted to see that all key agencies have decided to participate in this workshop. I am confident that with your deliberations you will
- accelerate the enactment of the proposed Thai OSH Bill;
- achieve stronger tripartite cooperation in chemical safety and in the prevention of major industrial accidents; and
- establish-under the national OSH tripartite body-a national tripartite subcommittee on major hazard control.
I wish you all success in your work ahead during these three days.
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Updated by SUT/TRS. Approved by BKL. Last update: 4 July 2001.