2 Days Of Removing Floor Tiles = 3 Thai Men Going To Hospital

[Tokay]

Having removed tiles myself in the past, I suggested on day one to the crew, they should be using gloves to deal with the broken tile and that a pair would be cheaper for them than a trip to the hospital. Of course that fell on deaf ears. I was also horrified to stop by once and find two of their kids, no older than 5, running around barefoot and also playing with the sharp broken tiles.

Two days later, all tiles removed, we have had three men seriously slice open their hands and one his arm. All needing stitches.

I was not asked to pay for their mishaps, nor would I, as I suggest they wear gloves in the first place, but I did buy them some beer towards the end of the day and they all were smiles (and bandages), beer in one hand, cleaning up what was left of the broken tiles with their other, unprotected hand.

Next the crew is going to start on a rooftop sala. How do you say "safety harness" in Thai?

[Samuian]

I saw the "Tower"of the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbay opposite the Gateway of India coming up,

all Bamboo Scaffolding, barefoot workers, women carrying the compo in little pan like bowls

on their heads up the scaffolding, balancing very gracefully their load op the bamboo poles....

such scenes could be watched in Hongkong, Macao, Djakarta.... name it.. no safety gear - what so ever!

[Thongkorn]

Dont forget to get them some steel toecap flip flops

[Tokay]

I saw the "Tower"of the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbay opposite the Gateway of India coming up,

all Bamboo Scaffolding, barefoot workers, women carrying the compo in little pan like bowls

on their heads up the scaffolding, balancing very gracefully their load op the bamboo poles....

I bet that was a sight.

I understand this part of the world has no regard for safety, I just found it odd that in only 2 days, 3 men had to get stitches. One would think, if your job is to remove tile and you do it often, you would have a system down or took a little caution so you didn't go to the hospital on every job.

[Tokay]

Dont forget to get them some steel toecap flip flops

Built Thai Tuff!

[trogers]

Now you know why it is an innate behaviour of Thais to block provincial roads - their deep forward thinking and planning!

[teddy_bare]

I watched once, just at the bottom of the access road to the Amari Coral Beach hotel in Patong, 6 guys plodding a transformer with a 6 metre bamboo pole. Sparks were flying. This all took place as the heavens had just opened and the rain water was pearling off the pole all over the guys. Wobbling my motorcy to a halt I shouted at them to stop. They did for a moment to smile back at me and then continued with the plodding.

i quickly moved out of the path of the road river that was forming around me.

Me, my mate and our dive instructor only just managed to wobble home on my honda dream.

These thais are crazy

[thailandlover]

Three grown men on a Honda dream and you are calling the Thais crazy?

[Samuian]

I saw the "Tower"of the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbay opposite the Gateway of India coming up,

all Bamboo Scaffolding, barefoot workers, women carrying the compo in little pan like bowls

on their heads up the scaffolding, balancing very gracefully their load op the bamboo poles....

I bet that was a sight.

I understand this part of the world has no regard for safety, I just found it odd that in only 2 days, 3 men had to get stitches. One would think, if your job is to remove tile and you do it often, you would have a system down or took a little caution so you didn't go to the hospital on every job.

You bet right and yes I forgot the women donning saris of course!

regarding the 3 getting stitches in 2 days.... and logic - this doesn't apply in general in much of asia!

irrationality rulez!

But then it all works... it's the "unexplainable"

[Rimmer]

I still have in mint condition for the workers when we built the house:

6 pairs steel toe work shoes

2 snap on safety harness for working on the roof

12 safety hats

2 Welders masks

3 Welders goggles

The only stuff they used were wooley gloves.

The welders used leather ones.

Dark sun glasses for welding

They also liked the wellingtons I purchased

[teddy_bare]

Three grown men on a Honda dream and you are calling the Thais crazy?

I would call it ironic humour, but some folks wouldn't get it!

The instructor was a Thai Girl and my mate is a midget, well he is hung like a house fly. <----- (Hint, they last bit was more humour BTW)

[Tokay]

I still have in mint condition for the workers when we built the house:

6 pairs steel toe work shoes

2 snap on safety harness for working on the roof

12 safety hats

2 Welders masks

3 Welders goggles

The only stuff they used were wooley gloves.

The welders used leather ones.

Dark sun glasses for welding

They also liked the wellingtons I purchased

[moe666]

Only 33baht for hospital.

[Datsun240Z]

ever heard of a pneumatic jack?

[thaihome]

I work on the management team for 3 major projects on the Eastern Seaboard. Combined these 3 project have worked over 10 million hours without a lost time accident and an incident rate that would be the envy of any western project. We have been doing business in Thailand for over 15 years, in that time we have worked something like 50 million hours and have had 3 lost time incidents and no deaths.

All workers are issued and use full personal protection equipment (PPE), have daily tool box safety meetings, and each job is planned with a full risk analysis in which the workers themselves participate.

It is possible to have a safe work environment in the developing world. It requires a comprehensive education program, the full commitment of management and the active participation of the workers themselves.

For the OP, do you require the workers to wear gloves or they were not allowed to work? To the poster that bought the equipment and then stood back and watched them not use it, did you enforce the usage on your jobsite? Why not? Did you not want a safe jobsite? Or were you just interested in giving lip service to it by saying I bought the equipment but they wouldn’t use it.

I have been working construction for some 30 years, I can tell you, if don’t require safe work practices from the top down, it doesn’t happen and to blame the workers is a cop out.

TH

[David006]

I work on the management team for 3 major projects on the Eastern Seaboard. Combined these 3 project have worked over 10 million hours without a lost time accident and an incident rate that would be the envy of any western project. We have been doing business in Thailand for over 15 years, in that time we have worked something like 50 million hours and have had 3 lost time incidents and no deaths.

All workers are issued and use full personal protection equipment (PPE), have daily tool box safety meetings, and each job is planned with a full risk analysis in which the workers themselves participate.

It is possible to have a safe work environment in the developing world. It requires a comprehensive education program, the full commitment of management and the active participation of the workers themselves.

For the OP, do you require the workers to wear gloves or they were not allowed to work? To the poster that bought the equipment and then stood back and watched them not use it, did you enforce the usage on your jobsite? Why not? Did you not want a safe jobsite? Or were you just interested in giving lip service to it by saying I bought the equipment but they wouldn’t use it.

I have been working construction for some 30 years, I can tell you, if don’t require safe work practices from the top down, it doesn’t happen and to blame the workers is a cop out.

TH

Not sure you can blame the home owner/builder for what the workers don't do? How does one enforce safe work practice..I tried when they built my house,..safety glasses, harnesses, gloves etc..they put em on smiling ..then when your away they are back to sunglasses and flip flops.

Seems rural Thailand building or farm workers do not seem to think ahead to potential dangerous practice.

Of course us expats are a bit "midday sun" stupid too, many a time I have picked up a rock or lump of wood and got bitten by a scorpion! Can never find my gloves or too lazy..? Oh and yes cut myself moving tile debris too, then again cut myself on grass too!

[thaihome]

The level of construction you are talking about is the hardest to break. I know; I spent the first 10 years of my time in it. All I can say is, if the owners are really interested in a safe site, they need to enforce the rules they set. Remember, it is your site, if they want to work on it, whether it is just breaking up some tiles or building and entire petro chemical plant, they have to follow your rules. There are positive and negative reinforcements you can do. On the positive side, you set up incentives for following safe practices. The negative is easy, if they took the safety gear off when your back was turned and you caught them, they are gone. If you are unwilling to do this, shut up.

Note, I am well aware this can lead to serious labor issues and inefficiencies at the site, but you have to be willing to pay the price or quit bitching about it. There is a joint responsibility and making statement about how unaware Thai construction workers are is ignoring your own responsibility and just being a hypocrite.

These sort of threads just piss me off, mostly because they are by people that are not in construction business and have absolutely no knowledge or insight into what the real issues are here in Thailand or anywhere else in the world.

TH

[Tokay]

The level of construction you are talking about is the hardest to break. I know; I spent the first 10 years of my time in it. All I can say is, if the owners are really interested in a safe site, they need to enforce the rules they set. Remember, it is your site, if they want to work on it, whether it is just breaking up some tiles or building and entire petro chemical plant, they have to follow your rules. There are positive and negative reinforcements you can do. On the positive side, you set up incentives for following safe practices. The negative is easy, if they took the safety gear off when your back was turned and you caught them, they are gone. If you are unwilling to do this, shut up.

Note, I am well aware this can lead to serious labor issues and inefficiencies at the site, but you have to be willing to pay the price or quit bitching about it. There is a joint responsibility and making statement about how unaware Thai construction workers are is ignoring your own responsibility and just being a hypocrite.

These sort of threads just piss me off, mostly because they are by people that are not in construction business and have absolutely no knowledge or insight into what the real issues are here in Thailand or anywhere else in the world.

TH

Not only due to safety issues, I shit canned the bad crew and got a new one. The new crew has been there for a few weeks now without any problems. I also laid down the law on how the site is to be kept clean. No issues now.

[reallyok]

I work on the management team for 3 major projects on the Eastern Seaboard. Combined these 3 project have worked over 10 million hours without a lost time accident and an incident rate that would be the envy of any western project. We have been doing business in Thailand for over 15 years, in that time we have worked something like 50 million hours and have had 3 lost time incidents and no deaths.

All workers are issued and use full personal protection equipment (PPE), have daily tool box safety meetings, and each job is planned with a full risk analysis in which the workers themselves participate.

It is possible to have a safe work environment in the developing world. It requires a comprehensive education program, the full commitment of management and the active participation of the workers themselves.

For the OP, do you require the workers to wear gloves or they were not allowed to work? To the poster that bought the equipment and then stood back and watched them not use it, did you enforce the usage on your jobsite? Why not? Did you not want a safe jobsite? Or were you just interested in giving lip service to it by saying I bought the equipment but they wouldn't use it.

I have been working construction for some 30 years, I can tell you, if don't require safe work practices from the top down, it doesn't happen and to blame the workers is a cop out.

TH

Not sure you can blame the home owner/builder for what the workers don't do? How does one enforce safe work practice..I tried when they built my house,..safety glasses, harnesses, gloves etc..they put em on smiling ..then when your away they are back to sunglasses and flip flops.

Seems rural Thailand building or farm workers do not seem to think ahead to potential dangerous practice.

Of course us expats are a bit "midday sun" stupid too, many a time I have picked up a rock or lump of wood and got bitten by a scorpion! Can never find my gloves or too lazy..? Oh and yes cut myself moving tile debris too, then again cut myself on grass too!

Come off the 'grass' ..........Scorpions do not bite !