Just How Cheap Is A Thai Life?

[G00GLE]

Strolled through the lovely Avenue last night to enjoy Steak Night at Shenanigans to watch the cleaning ladies (8 of them) all wearing white boots and cleaning the water off the overhangs at the Avenue.

No safety equipment unless you count the white boots.

I had always wondered if those glass overhangs that stick out from the metal railing around the courtyard were able to hold a human without collapsing. I watched them standing on wet overhangs while they cleaned - not holding on to anything, no ropes nothing. The fall from the second level of the Avenue would surely damage them if not kill them.

What asshol_e ordered them to clean the overhangs while it was still raining?

What a country.

[7robbie7]

Strolled through the lovely Avenue last night to enjoy Steak Night at Shenanigans to watch the cleaning ladies (8 of them) all wearing white boots and cleaning the water off the overhangs at the Avenue.

No safety equipment unless you count the white boots.

I had always wondered if those glass overhangs that stick out from the metal railing around the courtyard were able to hold a human without collapsing. I watched them standing on wet overhangs while they cleaned - not holding on to anything, no ropes nothing. The fall from the second level of the Avenue would surely damage them if not kill them.

What asshol_e ordered them to clean the overhangs while it was still raining?

What a country.

Amazing Thailand

[innovator]

The Avenue is famous for treacherous places. When the Starbucks first opened up, they had no hand railing going up the steep steps. One customer tumbled down and crashed through the glass window at the entrance. The same asshol_e must be in charge of cleaning the overhangs during the rain as well as managing the steps inside the Starbucks.

[Heng]

Good thing the OP isn't in charge of any of the publicly listed construction companies or else the tallest buildings here would be 3 stories.

[Simbo]

How cheap is a Thai life ? I have heard that in a road accident, it's cheaper if the victim dies than badly injured. They say 50.000k is the price of life here. Hospitalisation is more expensive.

[G00GLE]

Good thing the OP isn't in charge of any of the publicly listed construction companies or else the tallest buildings here would be 3 stories.

I'm not sure how to respond to this. Would you care to elaborate on what you mean?

[G00GLE]

Maybe you people don't understand. The woman and one man were all cleaning the railings and the top of these overhangs while standing on the overhang while it was still raining. They were walking on glass wearing only white boots so they wouldn't slip.

I didn't watch them long because I don't get my kicks watching unfortunate people die.

[Heng]

Good thing the OP isn't in charge of any of the publicly listed construction companies or else the tallest buildings here would be 3 stories.

I'm not sure how to respond to this. Would you care to elaborate on what you mean?

It's right there in plain English for you. You're applying your own standards to someone elses. Who's to say yours are what should apply?

[barryofthailand]

This is Thailand. Have you ever watched Thai people work? This is the way they work. This is the reason when ever I need any work done, I don't watch them. They have no sense of safety.

Barry

[G00GLE]

This is Thailand. Have you ever watched Thai people work? This is the way they work. This is the reason when ever I need any work done, I don't watch them. They have no sense of safety.

Barry

Really? Not one of them has a sense of safety?

[bulmercke]

Good thing the OP isn't in charge of any of the publicly listed construction companies or else the tallest buildings here would be 3 stories.

Young people making small money are unnecessarily exposed to personal injury - even death - because of the uncaring and irresponsible attitude of their employers.

I don't find this funny.

[G00GLE]

Good thing the OP isn't in charge of any of the publicly listed construction companies or else the tallest buildings here would be 3 stories.

Young people making small money are unnecessarily exposed to personal injury - even death - because of the uncaring and irresponsible attitude of their employers.

I don't find this funny.

I didn't find it funny either. What makes you think they were young? I saw women in their twenties and possibly up to their sixties standing on wet glass which is suspended some 35 feet above cold hard stone.

There is nothing funny about it.

[justcruisin]

This is Thailand. Have you ever watched Thai people work? This is the way they work. This is the reason when ever I need any work done, I don't watch them. They have no sense of safety.

Barry

Seems there are no safety concerns by employers or employees.

The family next door just built a house,steel frame and never did the welder use a face shield.

I just pity the guy waking up every morning with painful eyes from welding flash,is this bravado or just plain stupidity on their part?

Same goes for the people working on medium rise buildings with lashed bamboo scaffolding.

Life is cheap if your poor

[Heng]

Good thing the OP isn't in charge of any of the publicly listed construction companies or else the tallest buildings here would be 3 stories.

Young people making small money are unnecessarily exposed to personal injury - even death - because of the uncaring and irresponsible attitude of their employers.

I don't find this funny.

Wasn't meant to be funny. They aren't being forced to do anything. It's the occupation that they choose.

[Heng]

Good thing the OP isn't in charge of any of the publicly listed construction companies or else the tallest buildings here would be 3 stories.

Young people making small money are unnecessarily exposed to personal injury - even death - because of the uncaring and irresponsible attitude of their employers.

I don't find this funny.

I didn't find it funny either. What makes you think they were young? I saw women in their twenties and possibly up to their sixties standing on wet glass which is suspended some 35 feet above cold hard stone.

There is nothing funny about it.

Just because you couldn't balance on wet glass at 35 feet, doesn't mean that they don't have the ability to do so. Did you know that an awful lot of construction companies still use (and reuse) wood scaffolding for many parts of low and high rise construction, also without any kind of safety strap system in place?

[BangnaBound]

I think a better question is why the overhangs require 8 people to clear off the water. With proper engineering and design this shouldn’t be necessary. While it’s definitely possible to engineer a glass overhang to be safe with 8 people walking on it, if the engineer could manage to keep water from ‘sticking’ to glass, I won’t be walking on his overhang.

[barryofthailand]

I think a better question is why the overhangs require 8 people to clear off the water. With proper engineering and design this shouldn’t be necessary. While it’s definitely possible to engineer a glass overhang to be safe with 8 people walking on it, if the engineer could manage to keep water from ‘sticking’ to glass, I won’t be walking on his overhang.

For the same reason it takes five people to do the work of one.

Barry

[foxxx]

I dont think it's 100% to do with the way thai's value life, it was only a few decades ago that skyscrapers were being built with not much more safety then the thais use now.

I think its a mixture of a lack of government regulations and controls, policing those regulations, corruption and since the current regulations are so easy to get around the owners of the projects skimp to make profits.

They cut corners and do it cheap because the people hiring them screwed them down on price, they have to drop the price or loose the project to another constructor, if there was across the board safety regulations that everyone followed and inspectors that monitored projects then the cost would go up across the board, and there would be no risk of loosing it to a competitor who cut corners on safety because there's regulation.

On top of that in western countries there's unions protecting workers rights, if there's no safety in place the workers strike until its safe etc. Here if they even try to strike there's 100 more cheap workers lined up ready to do the same job at the same price or even less. hate to say it but i think they need unions! but i guess that'll just encourage more corruption!

[BangnaBound]

I think a better question is why the overhangs require 8 people to clear off the water. With proper engineering and design this shouldn’t be necessary. While it’s definitely possible to engineer a glass overhang to be safe with 8 people walking on it, if the engineer could manage to keep water from ‘sticking’ to glass, I won’t be walking on his overhang.

For the same reason it takes five people to do the work of one.

Barry

What I meant was why are building here generally built without consideration for the heavy rains. Heavy rain is nothing new, but designers rarely include adequate drainage.

[WilliamCave]

As to safety, In Canada the indians from Quebec built alot of the steel buildings in NewYork and else where. They show no fear. I sometimes just sit and watch them work amazing. They walk the steel like walking on the ground. Up down across over and sometimes they dont wear belts. So it is all the individual working on theses heights how comfortable they are.

If you are afraid I am told is very bad.

Actually heights dont bother me, been on many projects just not afraid of heights.

[Ungabunga]

There's nothing like a bit of common sense. Not too much to ask for. If someone asked me to go onto a (slippery) wet roof with no handrail, or carry out any other potentially dangerous job then they would be told to **** off. Sadly though, a lot of Thai employees on building sites don't have the luxury of being able to do the same.

I get the feeling that if Thailand adopted and rigorously enforced a Health & Safety Law (comparible with say that of the UK), then nothing would ever get done.

[stupidfalang]

Took this pic with my mobile last week. This guy was apparently fixing some electric wires without any ground support at all just at a busy intersection.

Priceless... did I hear you say Safety standards?

[Thaifan2]

Took this pic with my mobile last week. This guy was apparently fixing some electric wires without any ground support at all just at a busy intersection.

Priceless... did I hear you say Safety standards?

Amazing picture .

[THAILIBAN]

a good safety standard costs quite a lot of extra-money.

so why should the "oh-so-wonderful" Thai-Elite of businessmen spend a lot of money to protect lower-class people (or, even worse, Burmese citizens) from unsafe premises or working conditions ? what for ? if one worker dies, the next one is readily available to do the job....

to be fair, such lousy working-conditions exist in many countries in Asia.... (which doesnt make that fact less disturbing)

[toptuan]

They were walking on glass wearing only white boots...

Really? I think we now know the real motivation for your ogle-adventure...

[katana]

Wasn't meant to be funny. They aren't being forced to do anything. It's the occupation that they choose.

I would imagine that if you're poor with no social security net to fall back on, your choices are somewhat limited. It's not as simple as picking and choosing at whim as you imply.

[mr.buffalo]

Indeed, how cheap is a Thai life ? You may want to ask Boeing to help you work it out. I saw a telly programme some months back about aeroplane crashes and the recommendations the air crash investigators make to the manufacturers. As it transpires in some cases Boeing admitted that not all recommendations are carried out and to quote a Boeing spokesperson is that they weigh up the chances of it happening again and multiply the possible figure of deaths ( I forget the figure but think it was around $300,000 per person on the plane ) then calculate the cost of doing the repairs/mods and if the repairs/mods ( don't forget they will have to do the r/mods to all of that particular model ) comes to more than the calculated death value it does not do the work. Have you been in a Boeing recently ?

[boiledegg]

Indeed, how cheap is a Thai life ? You may want to ask Boeing to help you work it out. I saw a telly programme some months back about aeroplane crashes and the recommendations the air crash investigators make to the manufacturers. As it transpires in some cases Boeing admitted that not all recommendations are carried out and to quote a Boeing spokesperson is that they weigh up the chances of it happening again and multiply the possible figure of deaths ( I forget the figure but think it was around $300,000 per person on the plane ) then calculate the cost of doing the repairs/mods and if the repairs/mods ( don't forget they will have to do the r/mods to all of that particular model ) comes to more than the calculated death value it does not do the work. Have you been in a Boeing recently ?

I dont believe for 1 moment that a current boeing employee would claim such a thing, if an accident were to occur in any ambulance chasing society such comments would be perfect testimony for the victim to sue Boeing for millions of $$$$$

Edited July 12, 2008 by boiledegg

[Basil B]

Took this pic with my mobile last week. This guy was apparently fixing some electric wires without any ground support at all just at a busy intersection.

Priceless... did I hear you say Safety standards?

This reminds me of an incident (I think April last year) when some guy fitting a sign box got Fried, he also took out the electricity for Pattaya and Jomtien for many hours.

BB

[Bangkokphil]

health and safety should be introduced via government and begins by setting fair compensation for loss of life and limb for workers.paid by the employer.the rest should follow. but as many people comment this is Thailand and you have to tackle the problems of corruption first. I remember a taxi drivver being killed when a part of the skytrain construction fell on his taxi. The Local Police Chief negotiated a 3 Million Baht settlement for his wife and two children (Both Infants.) Perhaps this values a life in Thailand and also shows the extent of the prolem.