Samut Prakan building collapse: Reported death of 15-yr-old labourer to be investigated

[webfact]

ACCIDENT
Reported death of 15-yr-old labourer to be investigated
The Nation



BANGKOK: -- The Department of Labour Protection and Welfare will investigate reports that a 15-year-old was among 11 workers killed in Tuesday's building collapse in Samut Prakan.

"Any employer who hires a person aged under 18 will face legal action," department director-general Panich Chitchang said yesterday.

The accident at the construction site of the Chakri Naruebodindra Medical Institute in Samut Prakan's Bang Phli district claimed 11 lives and injured 16 victims.

Panich said the Samut Prakan Labour Protection and Welfare Office would invite all relevant parties to provide testimony on March 3.

Italian-Thai Development is in charge of the construction project.


-- The Nation 2014-02-28

[pookiki]

Very sad story but not all that unusual for underage migrant workers to be working in Thailand. I see many migrant workers in restaurants and at construction sites that clearly look under the age of 18.

[Thai at Heart]

Of course having a death trap construction site doesn't matter....

[stickylies]

15 yo construction builders = daily business in LOS.

(often burmese...)

[falangadang]

RIP to the deceased and condolences to their families.

Makes you wonder (and worry) about the building standard and safety of many of the completed Thai buildings that people live in and work in every day.

One strong storm or earth tremor and it could bring the house down so to speak.

[bbradsby]

In a developing country such as Thailand, where education in rural areas past middle school is not likely nor even effective, and where itinerant workers come from rural village life in neighboring 3rd world countries (Cambodia, Laos, Burma), hard work-lives for teenagers is the Norm. They are learning their father's trade in what is in effect a construction trade guild system, or vocational "school."

Its only in the rich West that humans of this age have the luxury of continuing education and of being children. The teenagers from 3rd World villages would already be family farmworkers and quite possibly fathers & mothers already in their native cultures. So the fact that they were on a construction site is not surprising nor alarming.

What is alarming and offensive is that a firm as large and prominent as Ital-Thai was in charge of the project where this act of criminal negligence took the lives of workers.

[Mudcrab]

It wasn't that long ago that 15 year (and 14 year old)s were apprenticed into trades or became labourers in the western cultures either. That does in no way diminish from the tragedy of this young persons passing but does put a perspective on the age thing.

I am currently employed in a senior engineering management role.

Many of my friends (and colleagues who gained post trade qualifications) started their apprenticeships at age 15.

The nonsense about having to leave school at 18 is a way of keeping the unemployment figures down and is a good (KPI) indicator for the Government to tell us what a good job they are doing.

When we wake up to the fact that that 90% of 18 year olds aren't going to go to University in an effective manner, and face the reality that we need some lower paid jobs, i.e. apprenticeships, to soak up the majority of the remainder of smart kids, then we can move forward in the west.

There will always be some kids who will never work unfortunately. I don't claim to know what the answer to this is...but it isn't sit down money.....maybe get used to a lower standard of living.

Rant over!!!

[bangon04]

15 yo construction builders = daily business in LOS.

(often burmese...)

"Italian-Thai Development is in charge of the construction project"

Of course the foreigners again......

But it would be impossible to put any blame on the owners, as they are above reproach.

[Thongkorn]

15 yo construction builders = daily business in LOS.

(often burmese...)

Sahmut Prakan is full of Burmese people, it is cheap labour.

[bbradsby]

The media, police and building officials should combine this concrete slab collapse investigation with a follow-up of the [nonexistent or silenced] 2012 investigation of the counterfeit steel reinforcing bar foundry in Samut Prakarn ( http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/crimes/278725/ ) that was supplying junk rebar to some large, prominent, yet somehow mysteriously unnamed Thai contractors and projects.

These things always go very quiet very quickly, as well-connected fat cats step in to squash any bad publicity. Their crimes are aided and abetted by corrupt government officials and libel/slander laws that severely punish whistle blowers even if they speak the truth, so strong is the need to save Face in Thailand.