Govt Trying To Reduce Work-related Deaths

[sbk]

Govt trying to reduce deaths

Department chief warns business owners they must begin observing rules, on pain of prosecution

Published on September 8, 2007

The Labour Protection and Welfare Depart-ment is trying to reduce work-related deaths and injuries by 10 per cent from the more than 200,00 cases recorded last year, department chief Padungsak Thephasdin na Ayutthaya said yesterday.

Thailand's deaths and injuries due to occupational hazards are rather high, Padungsak said, citing figures from the Social Security Office's Workmen's Compensation Fund.

The fund recorded a total of 204,257 workplace related mishaps last year in which 808 workers were killed, 21 were maimed, 3,413 lost an organ and 200,015 had to take a period of sick leave), he said.

Padungsak urged business owners to comply with work-safety laws or they would face punishment of up to one year in jail and/or a fine of Bt200,000.

The Labour Protection and Welfare Department has acted on 30 cases of breach of work safety laws in the first nine months of the fiscal year 2007 (October 2006 to June 2007), he said.

Padungsak said Bangkok had 55,733 cases last year, while the five surrounding provinces (Samut Prakan, Nonthaburi, Pathum Thani, Samut Sakhon and Nakhon Pathom) together had 71,945.

Bangkok had the highest fatalities with 201 deaths last year, followed by Chon Buri (26), Samut Prakan (56), Pathum Thani (33), and Nakhon Pathom with 32, he said.

Most of the victims of workplace mishaps were in the 25-29 age group, followed by those in the 20-24 age group, he said.

Padungsak said businesses with between 200 and 499 workers reported the most work-related mishaps.

Vehicle mishaps accounted for 45 per cent of all fatal cases, followed by falls from high places and electrocution.

Machinery operators were most at risk of losing an organ, mostly fingers and eyes.

Work involving metal products - such as assembling electrical appliances, making metal pipes and manufacture of clock parts - were considered the most dangerous trades, with 38,255 accidents and 45 deaths.

Ranked second was the trading sector - shopping malls and places that sell items such as electrical appliances, motorcycles or construction tools - with a total of 22,247 cases and 149 deaths.

Ranked third were construction businesses, machine installation and well-digging services, with a total of 20,201 workers affected and 132 deaths.

In related news, a worker at a paper factory in Muang Samut Sakhon had his head crushed by a machine yesterday morning.

Police rushed to ASA Box Board Container Co's factory at 8am to find the body of Nikhom Khamdee, 31, with his head stuck in a paper-pressing machine.

Witnesses said Nikhom was the chief technician whose night shift was to have ended at 8am. However, when the machine stopped working he put his head inside to see what was wrong. It was suspected that he did not turn the machine off properly when it got stuck and was killed when it suddenly started working again.

Human resources manager Surachai Kemaworasawt said the firm would assist Nikhom's family as his death was due to a work-related accident.

The Nation

[candoman89]

Its not surprised about the number of injuries and deaths (hugely under reported IMHO). Can't tell you the number of times I have given my safety glasses to people using saws to cut through metal objects (rebar; I-beams etc.).

The stupid handyman in my building had to go to the hospital for foreign object in his eye (breaking masonry without glasses); gave him a pair. Two weeks later he was back in the hospital; same problem. He didn't like to wear the glasses (further proof of the Darwinian theory).

"3,413 lost an organ" dag nab it................lost my spleen; anyone seen it.

[sbk]

What really got me was the high death rate for people working in shopping malls!

[taxexile]

- such as ........ manufacture of clock parts - were considered the most dangerous trades, with 38,255 accidents and 45 deaths.

clockmaking , dangerous ?? ...... thats got to be a wind up. surely.