WORKING PAPERS FOR SHARING COUNTRY EXPERIENCES
Homenet Southeast Asia’s Subregional Workshop on Membership-based Organizing, linking OSH and Fair Trade Concerns

Experiences in occupational health and safety promotion (2001-2007)
Foundation for Labour and Employment Promotion (Homenet Thailand)

Suntaree Huttee Saeng-king, Coordinator , Northeastern Women Network and committee member, Foundation for Labor and Employment Development  
Kanoknat  Ngamnate, Central  part coordinator,  Foundation for Labour and Employment Promotion

How is occupational health and safety important to informal workers in Thailand?

In 2001, with support from the Health System Research Institute (HSRI), Homenet Thailand initiated a study to determine the problems confronting  home based workers. The research involved six HBW groups doing various jobs including bronze ware, sewing, gem cutting, weaving, seed breeding and fishing net weaving. Occupational risks found during the survey were: Physical hazards; Machine induced hazards;  Chemical toxicity;  Physical harm;  and Mental stress.

In 2002, a pilot project to educate and develop a manual for HBWs was launched. In the process, some obstacles to project implementation were identified. Among these were: HBWs lack access, resources and awareness, to look after their  health;  lack of understanding among state officers, local organizations and the community;  lack of  monitoring system; limited assistance from experts; lack of research and development for self-care and the environment;  lack  tool for information dissemination; and lack of local and national state mechanism directly in charge of the issue. 

To address the above obstacles, the Development of Informal Workers’ Quality of Life Project was developed with support from the Occupational Health Division of the Thai Health Promotion Foundation. The project,  was started in March 2004 and ended in February 2007,  focusing on three informal worker s’groups in agriculture, production and service sectors.  Guided by five major strategies, the project aims to develop social protection among informal workers,  including raising public awareness and consciousness  in health promotion of informal workers, their families, employers and communities;  development of health services to promote health and quality of life among informal workers;  and strengthening cooperation among alliances at different levels for the development of proper policy for informal workers.

Target group consisted of informal workers in the production sector who have been employed for at least one year and are subject to high risk of work related illnesses or dangers including local leaders  or local organizations which are enthusiastic to participate. Altogether, there were 67 groups in 17 provinces in the North, Northeast, Central, Bangkok and South.

Project Implementation and Outcome
Project implementation was carried out in two ways -  organizing activities at the local level (target areas) and raising awareness at the policy-making level.  Results of  the project are as follows:

• Twelve (12) model areas have been developed to enhance cooperation of various organizations in local areas to promote occupational health and safety among informal workers ;
• Setting  up and expansion of  network in the industrial sector - more than 150 groups and 7,000 individuals are part of the informal workers’ network;
• Alliances that promote health at the provincial and local levels  - Tambon have developed leaders that  help facilitate in the learning process and enhance services and mobilize provincial policy and plans;
• Some TAOs already integrate skill training and occupational health and safety into their plans;
• Knowledge is compiled and local creative media is used such as the Livable and Workable Workplaces Project;
• A network of academics is set up at the local level including medical staff from a hospital to help support the implementation such as integrating WISH as one of the topics for teaching nursing students at the Nursing Medical School;
• Replication to other groups has been made;
• Expand clean technology concepts to other groups

Lessons learned

1. The issue of occupational health and safety can be a good entry point for work. It helps create self awareness among informal workers because they are able to understand their own problems and learn to discrepancies between protection provided by state for formal and informal workers.
2. Health and safety is a humanitarian issue that can lead to increased awareness of society and public so that people at large understand the sufferings and injustices faced by informal workers.
3. An issue that can be used to demand accountability from employers and the state in terms of providing OSH protection to informal workers.
4. Awareness and participation of leaders and members of informal workers’ groups are essential for sustainability of occupational health and safety for informal workers. At present, there are no other push factors to warrant that informal workers’ advocacy will be attained, without themselves lobbying and participating on their behalf. Therefore, the awareness of leaders and members of informal workers’ groups is the factor that will lead to improvement of safe working environment, adoption of Clean Technology (CT), the use of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE), behavioral change for safety and regular monitoring and evaluation of  occupational safety among groups. 
5. The 1998 Labor Protection Act does not cover informal workers and even though the 2003 Ministerial Regulation concerning Home-based Workers and 2005 Ministerial Regulation concerning Labor Protection of Agricultural Workers have some provisions for occupational safety among both groups of informal worker, there are no mechanisms and measures to put this into practice.  Since the promotion of occupational safety among informal worker requires technical, academic and specific knowledge, an NGO, like Homenet Thailand, finds it important to develop knowledge, tools, and curriculum on health and safety for informal workers’ groups.
6. Attempts to develop health and safety of informal workers will not succeed given the exclusive roles of other partners. The issue is highly complex by nature and thus requires partnership and cooperation of relevant state agencies and those with direct responsibility such as various agencies under the Ministry of Labor and Ministry of Public Health, local administration organizations, academics, experts from various sectors including public health, the environment, law, and society. All the expertise must be integrated. 
7. To ensure sustainability of advocacy at the policy level, Homenet Thailand and informal labor networks have been pushing for ministerial policies for services and protection of health and safety among informal workers at the national level,  i.e., the Home-based Workers Act.  Amendments have been proposed for various instruments including Social Security Act, etc.  At the local level, Homenet Thailand works with local administration organizations like Tambon Administration Organizations (TAOs) and Municipalities to push for policies, action plans, budgets and ordinances supportive of occupational health and safety among informal workers.

LESSONS FROM POLICY ADVOCACY ON
OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY FOR INFORMAL WORKERS
THROUGH LOCAL ADMINISTRATION ORGANIZATIONS 

Suntaree Huttee Saeng-king
Coordinator, Northeastern Women Network &
Committee Member, Foundation for Labour and Employment Promotion

From 2005-2007,  Homenet Thailand (Foundation for Labour and Employment Promotion and Informal Workers Network of Thailand) have been campaigning to raise awareness and identify solutions to problems on occupational health and safety of home-based workers who are self employed or subcontracted, as well as farmers in the contract farming system. Experiences will be shared on what Homenet Thailand (Foundation for Labour and Employment Promotion and Informal Workers Network of Thailand) have done to push for OHS (occupational health and safety) as a policy adopted by local authorities.

TAO (Tambon Administration Organization) has had experience in infrastructure development (utilities, road, power and water), but lacks information and understanding of labor issues (labor rights and labor protection laws). In addition, TAOs have been doing collaborative work with local health stations, so that their contribution has followed mainstream action plans laid out by the Ministry of Public Health and other health agencies such as eradication of mosquito larvae, physical exercise, sports ground against drug abuse, etc.  Issues concerning informal workers has always been an immediate concern for TAOs because many  of them are either home-based workers or farmers in contract farming system, or at least there is one informal workers’ group in the community. It is easy to help them understand the issues and develop vision for the enhancement of quality of life among informal workers.

For policy development of TAO concerning the health and safety of informal workers, Homenet Thailand followed the foregoing process: 1)  Recruitment of TAOs from project areas of Homenet Thailand; 2)   Education and understanding of informal workers’ concerns through organizing training, seminar, and discussions;  3)   Encourage TAOs to gather information on local informal workers’ groups; 4)  Explore various possibilities for action to promote health and safety of informal workers such as field visits and study trips to areas with successfully implemented health and safety promotion programs;  5) Develop commitment and visions of TAOs toward the promotion of health and safety of informal labor, the result of which will depend on implementation of  2, 3 and 4; 6)  Recruit TAO members as part of the working team; 7) Support pilot initiatives to improve health and safety problems of  informal worker groups ; 8) Dissemination of information; 9) Regular presentation of results by the working team and 10) Collaborate with TAOs to constantly develop other innovations. 

Based on the work with TAOs in the past three years, conducted in the Northern, Northeastern, Central , and Southern project areas of Homenet Thailand, results indicate that local administration organizations including municipalities and TAOs understand and realize the importance of health and safety promotion and development of working conditions for informal workers. An action plan has been formulated and budget also allocated for such activities.  Intense collaboration of TAOs and the working teams yielded twelve model areas led by capable group leaders with strength in carrying out OSH work as well as in pushing for legal and policy advocacy.

OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY, HEALTH AND WORKING ENVIRONMENT
AND HOME BASED WORKERS  IN  THAILAND

Poonsap S. Tulaphan
Manager, Homenet Thailand (Foundation for Labour and Employment Promotion) 

Occupational Safety, Health and Working Environment 
The 2005 National   Statistics Office (NSO) data reported that informal workers, comprised of 348,964 families, with 549,803 workers who are over 15 years old  were home based workers (HBWs).  However, real figures on homebased workers were estimated to reach 2 million and they  are found  in garments and textiles (48.5 %), jewelry and ornaments, (8.8 %),  wood and paper products (7.5 %),  artificial flowers (7.3 %), food and beverage (3.9 %), cigarette products (3.2 %), leatherware (1.5 %),  electronics and industrial machinery (1.5% ),  musical  equipment, sport ware and toys (, 1.4 %), metal ware, plastic and chemical products(,1.2 %), advertisement and printed matter (1.1 %,) glass and ceramic ware (1.1 %), furniture (0.9 %) and recycled products (0.3 %).    

In 2005, NSO reported three main problems faced by Homebased workers:  occupational safety, health and working environment (OSH); wages;  and  irregularity of  job. From this survey, OSH surfaced as one of the priority problems that HBWs and stakeholders have to confront with serious concern. Among these are: 1) Inappropriate workplace; 2)   Poor quality of machines, tools and equipments; 3) Improper ergonomics; 4) Contamination of toxic substance and chemical hazard at work; and 5)  Below standard working conditions.   In some occupations, workers gain knowledge on OSH but they cannot find proper Personal Protection Equipment (PPE ) to use in their jobs. HBWs,  who usually receive  low payment for their work, find it difficult to invest in PPE. Spending their incomes have to be prioritized, and the most urgent is to address the needs of their families first. For this reason, OSH concerns are neglected.

Sample cases of  OSH problems  provide tangible  pictures of  the health and safety risks that homebased workers are faced with. The risks  and hazards to health as well as to limbs and lives, occur in varying degrees depending on the  type of work that they engaged in.  There are examples that describe the real working conditions of workers involved in the production  of  stone mortar and stone carving products; sewing; shoe making; fishing nets making;  cloth weaving; wood carving;  doll making;  and bronze ware production.

Responsible organizations
Attention to occupational health and safety in Thailand from the government  and NGOs soared after the tragic fire at Kader Doll Factory that claimed lives of 188 and injured 400 workers in 1992. Since then, the government undertook initiatives to study similar problems and issued regulations to address occupational health and safety risks and accidents focusing on formal industrial sector. Concerned agencies include Ministry of Labor, Ministry of Public Health and Ministry of Industry. There are a few NGOs working on occupational health and safety, the most popular is the Council of Occupational Patients.  For informal workers, particularly, the home-based workers, Homenet Thailand is perhaps the best known. 

Conclusion
Among home-based workers their need to have jobs and stable income outweighs awareness on occupational health and safety. But OSH problems among HBWs cannot be ignored because 80% of them are women who play important roles in reproductive work. With this awareness the ILO has set out various measures and mechanisms for protection of occupational health and safety among home-based workers as enshrined in The Home Work Convention No. 177.  OSH concerns should therefore be a priority for developing quality of life among HBWs and efforts should be collectively made to promote the awareness among them and identify measures to cope with the problems. 

Case Study
USING OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY AS A MEANS TO
ORGANIZE CENTRAL PART INFORMAL WORKER NETWORK
Kanoknat Ngamnet

Background of Central Part of Thailand projects
  Foundation for Labour and Employment Promotion (Homenet  Thailand)  started the project for development of quality of life of informal labour with support from the Thai Health Promotion Foundation in 2004. The main operational objective is to develop models on occupational health and safety covering four regions of Thailand and to explore operation and develop system that provides for strengthening of informal sector, community and society. The tasks include development of the environment conducive to health promotion, policy paper development, promotion of laws and measures that protect and develop quality of work life among the informal sector at the local and national levels. 
Previously,  the Foundation had activities only in Bangkok  and  had no partner organizations working in the 24 provinces in Central Part of Thailand.  Based on expected  outcome of the project, it was recommended that the Foundation  had to expand its area of operations.  This provided the impetus to replicate informal sector work in Central Part of Thailand. 

Starting  work with local groups in target areas
Outreach activities to local organizations in target areas were undertaken based on information obtained from study trips, research and information work by the Foundation in the past couple of years and information derived from the One Tambon One Product (OTOP) project.  Based on initial information, we undertook field survey of groups and community organizations, local administrations, etc. to assess the feasibility and potential of each local area whether or not it can achieve the goals set by the Foundation.  The first two groups included Farmer Group of Srayaisome, U-thong district, Suphanburi and Wangthong Weaving Group in U-Thong district, Suphanburi. 

On the second year,  the project  had to expand the target groups from Suphanburi to nearby provinces  in the Lower Central Part where no private organizations exist nor NGOs working on the issue had been recruited.  Recruitment of project areas and target groups was made through collaboration with development agencies in the provinces including  Suphanburi, Nakhon Pathom, Ratchaburi and Samut Sakhon based on the project criteria. Surveys were made to collect information for recruitment. Gaining trust from local villagers was a key to our initial work, since information gathered from them was needed for choosing project areas. Getting acquainted and obtaining advice from local organizations and individuals helped to accelerate our work and in the second year, we expanded to five more groups in four areas of the three provinces. 

From occupational health to the formation of Central Part  informal worker network   
 The formation of informal workers’ network began to take shape after two years of work.  Soon after each target area has implemented its activities on OSH and gained some experiences to share with others.  On many occasions, exchange of methods and lessons learned took place. Working teams and community leaders collectively identified ways to address their issues. Discussion was made on the issues of leverage and bargaining power of people’s sector vs. the bureaucratic system, local vs. national administration organizations. To develop sustainable solutions for informal sector’s issues, a proposal was made for the formation of a network. The inspiration and awareness on  the importance of bargaining power set the impetus for the formation of the Central Part informal workers’ network. 

Based on their proposal, the project organized forums to learn about networking and conducted regular monthly meetings to discuss issues concerning networking, collaboration and direction of the project. Goals for the organization were clarified and most importantly, activities had to be held regularly for self-development and for a stronger network. What developed from the discussions were important concerns such as structure of the network, committee members’ selection and action plans. 

Current situation of the Central Part  informal worker network
  In 2006, leaders of home-based workers (HBWs) including 7 groups and 339 members in three provinces, namely, Ratchaburi Nakhonpathom and Suphanburi who are the target groups of the Informal Sector’s Quality of Life Development Project in Central Part, met and agreed to set up an informal worker  network. Initially, leaders of the seven groups planned to disseminate information to all members in the expanded areas before the formation of a network. The issues of informal sector and occupational health and safety were used as rallying points to bring groups and individuals together. 

With these expansion efforts in informal sector, five contracted farmer and producer groups including 150 members showed their interest to join the network. All together, existing and expanded groups organized an important meeting to form committees preparatory to network formation. The network  has grown rapidly -  this was the result of  selecting the right  target groups and skilled leaders who are experienced in community work, for having the ability to raise issues of informal sector among members  in a clear manner. 

At present, the Central Part  informal worker’s network is governed by nine committee members and 12 members in the working team  responsible for four action plans including;

1. Dissemination of information on occupational health and safety among the informal sector.
2. Expansion of membership and collection of 10 baht/member/year for membership fee.
3. Fundraising for implementation of network  activities.
4. Organizing forums for information exchange and campaign on labour rights.

Advisory committee

1. Officers from  Suphanburi Public Health Authority
2. Occupational health staff, Potharam Hospital, Ratchaburi
3. Chairperson of Srayaisome TAO, Suphanburi
4. Chief officer of the Tambon Sai-ngam Primary Health Care Unit, Banglen district,  Nakhonpathom
5. Chief officer of the Tambon Banluak Primary Health Care Unit , Potharam district,  Ratchaburi
6. Tambon Srayaisome Primary Health Care Unit , U-thong district, Suphanburi

Membership based organizing and networking
Based on the assessment by the advisory committee on membership, in so far as increasing bargaining power is concerned, being a network member under the groups,  will not make a strong organization.  Basically, individual network members   still lack understanding of  their roles. Therefore, the Central Part informal worker network adjusts plan and an individual member who is required to pay membership fee of 10 baht per annum to benefit from this individual membership. At present, there are 300 members. 

Privileges for a member include

1. Receiving quarterly newsletter
2. Being eligible to participate in training
3. Being able to ask for consultation on various labour rights

In addition, the network committee plans to develop welfare and life insurance for network members as an incentive for those who have decided to join the network. 
Initial efforts of the network  have been made on capacity building of leaders and committee members on management, planning and proposal development, as well as  organized training to disseminate information on informal sector among members including issues concerning occupational health and safety and  labour rights. These activities have led to the expansion of membership based network in each area. 

Expectation of the network in the next three years
The Central Part informal worker network has gained more members from nearby Tambons and the committee deems it fit to develop sound and clear activities to create trust in the organization. A meeting was held to develop a strategic plan that includes
           

Goals for the next three years

1. Network is registered as an association within 2008
2. Membership will be expanded to at least 600 additional members within 2009
3. Teams of resource persons will be developed from among the villagers who are aware of the issues concerning labour rights and occupational health and safety of informal sector for further campaign and dissemination of issues. 
4. Organize training for members 3-4 times a year
5. Capacity building for network committees concerning management and fundraising.

Conclusion
The health risks of working in unsafe environment have exposed workers to the chemical hazards coming from raw materials and working equipments. The inappropriate working environment, improper working posture, long working hours and  lack of knowledge in occupational health and safety are the main reasons for the implementation of the development of quality of life of informal labour. Major changes in the implementation resulted in improvement of occupational health and safety in informal sector in Thailand,  including the expansion of informal labour networks, particularly in the regional level (Central Part and Southern Part of Thailand). The informal labour networks have taken the lead role in campaigning for occupational health and safety among workers in the informal economy.  Data gathered from monitoring of situation, problem analysis and coping strategies, highlight the linkage of occupational health and safety issue and others such as labour protection and security, etc. Thus, the implementation concept has been broadened to cover  labour rights, social and economic assurance. Heightening the capacities of informal workers’ leaders’  groups in various parts of the country should also aim to raise their awareness on various dimensions of  the informal sector and link all efforts to mobilize for advocacy protection policy and development of quality of life of informal worker at local and national levels. 
 

EXPERIENCES OF THE FOUNDATION FOR LABOUR AND EMPLOYMENT PROMOTION (FLEP)
IN LINKING OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND FAIR TRADE

Pan Wanbariboon
Foundation for Labour and Employment Promotion

Importance of Thai labour standards and development of quality of life in informal sector

            In the past four decades, economic development has been the main focus and has led to major structural changes, socially, politically and economically. All state policies, laws and measures have been geared toward promoting foreign investment and development of export sector in Thailand.

            The onslaught of national economic development has resulted in upheavals of production pattern in Thai society. Apart from transforming the agricultural sector to the industrial or agro industrial sector, both state and private sectors cannot avoid interacting with trade organizations and economic caucuses at the sub-regional, regional and international levels including the World Trade Organization, IMF, ADB, World Bank and Free Trade Area agreements which are being negotiated between the Thai government and various countries including Japan and USA.  Observing the negotiation among these organizations concerning cooperation, assistance and business collaboration, it is found that social issues have been increasingly used as a condition for bargaining and negotiating among various economic groups, i.e., labour rights, democratic governance, debt cancellation, poverty alleviation, environmental conservation and human rights.  It should be noted as well that private companies producing leading brands including Nike, Reebok, etc., have given more attention to developing their own Code of Conduct in the light of the social conditions and labour rights. And the Code of Conduct has been used as a standard with which suppliers of these leading companies are required to comply. Efforts are made to follow up if the subcontract companies abide by the Code of Conduct or not. For companies with no self-developed standards, they have to rely on existing standards including quality control standards such as ISO 9001-2000 or commodity standards such as Thai Industrial Standard (TIS), or Thai FDA as well as social responsibility on labour standards such as SA  8000 which is similar to the Thai Labour Standard 8001-2546.

            It should be observed that at present, various social issues have been increasingly raised as conditions for trade negotiation and bargaining. It is subject to different interpretations. Some treat the issue as an attempt to create international trade barriers, or it is being used as a sale gimmick, or to paint the good corporate image of companies, organizations at the regional or international levels. Some look to this as a good opportunity to use trade mechanisms to advocate social issues and to raise social awareness and responsibility among private entities.
Nevertheless, whether these existing standards will in reality benefit society, workers and entrepreneurs or not, and the efficiency of the monitoring systems will be subject to inquiry and are issues that need to be mobilized further.  
During the Ninth National Economic and Social Development Plan (2002-2006) under the concept of “Sufficiency Economy”which chiefly aims to provide for sound, sustainable and stable economic foundation to solve poverty, the government has launched the One Tambon One Product (OTOP) initiative to support villagers to use local wisdom to develop community products. The government has made possible educational activities and management to enhance connection between domestic production and international markets through the internet outlets. The policy has led to a growing number of small community enterprises and many groups becoming interested in skill and product development to serve the demands of the market. Machines are adopted to make products that meet both the quantitative and qualitative demands of market or orders with no regard to the treatment of workers and whether the production process may affect the environment or community. The sole emphasis is placed on economic success as other dimensions are ignored. This will inevitably impact producers, the environment, community and the country as a whole. 

A growing number of agencies have given attention to enable community enterprises or family based production groups to develop standard management and be able to develop quality products that meet the labour and environmental standards as well as international standards. The Ministry of Labour, Ministry of Industry, Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Interior aim to promote Thai products in to this direction. Meanwhile, they should have a role in supporting, assisting and enhancing understanding  of Thai Labour Standard  to meet the level of international standards.  New ways of production can be at the same time explored to promote industry at all levels to make them responsible for society and enhance quality of life of informal sector along with economic development.  

The Thai Labour Standard or Mo Ro Thor 8001-2546 is a social responsibility benchmark for Thai business. It has been developed in the light of the Thai Constitution, provisions concerning labour protection, welfare, labour relations and working environment and Conventions of ILO and United Nations. The Thai labour standards reflects treatment toward workers based on social responsibility which provides for the competition of Thai business and enhancement of  labour quality of life. The Department of Labour Protection and Welfare along with organizations of employers and employees, state agencies,  NGOs and educational institutes have collectively developed social responsibility standard for Thai business to provide as guidelines of treatment toward workers, namely, the Mo Ro Thor 8001-2546 guideline. This  is composed of two sections and 11 regulations including
Section 1, concerning management, which stipulates that a management system must be devised to guarantee protection for employees; and
Section 2, employment and working condition protection, including prohibition against forced labour, standard wages, working hours, prohibition against discrimination, disciplines and punishment, child labour, women labour,  freedom in  association and collective bargaining,  occupational health and safety, working environment and welfare. 

 Experience of Foundation for Labour and Employment Promotion concerning  occupational health and fair trade

            Funded by the Thai Health Promotion Foundation, the Foundation for Labour and Employment Promotion or HomeNet Thailand has been working with the informal sector for the period 2004-2007. During the past three years, achievements on occupational health and safety have been made on various fronts including (1) enabling 67 informal worker groups to handle risks, behavioral change, and address occupational health and safety issues at a satisfactory level and attain understanding on labour rights, (2) helping five occupational groups in pilot areas to use cleaner technologies in their production which provides for better safety and reduced environmental impacts, (3) training officers of 11  Primary Health Care Units and community health centers to be able to work for occupational health and become a model of learning, (4) helping 13 TAOs to develop plans to promote occupational health among occupational groups and (5) developing 13 model areas in four regions that are capable of enhancing occupational health among the informal sector.

We have also successfully involved the government sector  in the activities, both central and regional offices, through being part of various working committees. Another target group are the entrepreneurs that subcontract work to home-based workers or industries that process the products made by HBWs as well as community enterprises. The project made them aware, and be part of the entrepreneurs that care for occupational health and safety, working condition and the environment.  As a result, products made by them to serve the market are not exploitative of the producers. Producers work under a  good environment and are properly remunerated. The efforts aim to create fair trade which delivers all parties including producers and consumers. The project implemented two activities,  firstly, development of the Thai Labour Standard (Mo Ro Thor)  along with  development of quality of life of informal worker  and secondly, Healthy OTOP .  

Case 1  Thai Labour Standard (Mo Ro Thor) and quality of life development of informal worker

            In the third year (2006-2007) of the project,  the TLS  was promoted by the project. It  aimed to promote participation of all concerned parties in home-based work for the protection of occupational health and safety which will benefit entrepreneurs and HBWs as well. The pilot project, Thai Labour Standard: Social Responsibility or Mo Ro Thor 8001-2546/ TLS. 8001-2003 has been implemented and international criteria are adopted among OTOP, community enterprises and SMEs which were targets of the project. 

Procedure
Step 1 Explore information and facts of the target groups through coordination with the Provincial Labour Protection and Welfare Office, regional coordinators, entrepreneurs, HBW groups, and concerned individuals such as producers and clients.
Step 2  Analyze information to explore feasibility to work with the target groups in the light of the readiness and capacity of the target groups, any emerging problems and solutions, and involvement of informal worker.
Step 3   Recruited target groups along with the following criteria (1) the enterprises must be exporting industries, (2) clients or concerned people must have their self-developed standards and (3) the enterprises must be capable, determined and ready to solve problems and have high performance. 
Based on the above criteria, fours groups have been recruited including in  the South, the natural rubber latex procurer group, Tambon Klongpia, Chana district, Songkhla in collaboration with the Chana Latex Co., Ltd. which applied to join the network of Mo Ro Thor 8001-2549; in the Northeast, the shoe sole assembly HBW group, Ban Wangchai, Nampong district, Khonkaen in collaboration with the C.K. Shoes Co., Ltd. which applied to join the Mo Ro Thor 8001-2546 network and attempted to attain the same standard as  Dr. Martens brand; in the North, the wooden handicraft toy making group by Boonlert Games & Toys, Ban Pakham, Tambon Nonghan, Sansai, Chiang Mai, and HBWs working for Gerard Collection Co., Ltd. which applied to join the Mo Ro Thor 8001-2546 network; in Central Part Region, the bronze ware group, bronze ware development center, Bangkok, which applied to join the Mo Ro Thor 8001-2546 network.
Step 4   Stimulate change and adjustment of personal and organizational behavior through cooperation between the project responsible persons and the Labour Protection and Welfare Offices in four provinces. Visits have been made to discuss with owners of the workplaces, responsible persons in the workplaces, HBW groups, etc. to educate, exchange opinion and advise them, create trust and raise their awareness on the importance of Thai Labour Standard (Mor Ror Tor) for the benefit of the business and workers. 
Step 5   Develop participatory development process to provide for personal and organizational behavioral change.  Through visits, responsible persons of the project had   discussions with the target groups belonging to  entrepreneurs and HBW groups to explore their needs, meet and develop working plans, train, monitor and evaluate their implementation.   There were meetings with the Mo Ro Thor 8001-2546 network,  employers, owners of workplaces, to listen to their problems and give advice with ways to cope with problems.  There were regular meetings  and coordination with the Labour Protection and Welfare Office and concerned parties to report results and stimulate them to take care of their responsibilities and duties to work further  towards achieving the goals until the standards have been certified. 

Current situation of participating entrepreneurs and HBW groups
HBW groups who received training from the project have improved their working conditions and safety with personal protection equipment. 
The participating enterprises in the Mo Ro Thor 8001-2546 network attained different status.  C.K. Shoes cooperated with the TAO and Primary Health Care Unit to organize training on occupational health and safety among members of the shoe sole assembly worker groups in Ban Wangchai and their standard certification is being processed. The Chana Latex Co., Ltd. is being inspected for the certification of Mo Ro Thor 8001 – 2546.  The bronze ware SME /OTOP is developing the final report to be submitted before the certification of standard and the Boonlert Games & Toys is in the process of commissioning a consultant company before entering the inspection and certification process.

Lessons learned
1. Recruitment of responsible organizations is an important key to success.  They must possess knowledge and expertise in labour standards and other relevant skills, must have formed networks at the local level and can advocate policy change. Therefore, the Director of the Labour Standard Division has been selected to be in charge of the project. 
2. Entrepreneurs, OTOP enterprises and SMEs still lack understanding of labour standards.  As a result ,  they become too preoccupied with tax burden and expenses incurred from the operations. 
3. Labour standard is a new issue for OTOP enterprises and SMEs and awareness raising must be made among them, which must be extended to other factories. 
4. Owners of factory have less participation in enhancing occupational health and safety among HBW groups since the main responsibilities and funding have been handled by the project. In addition, they do not have much role in advocating guidelines for the creating and developing standards in factories, OTOP enterprises and SMEs in the future. 

Case 2  Healthly OTOP in Songkhla
            The Healthy OTOP project was implemented on the third year (2006-2007) wherein the Bureau of Occupational and Environmental Diseases was the main responsible organization. A number of OTOP groups have given much attention to product development and market expansion while having no knowledge and awareness on occupational health and safety among producers or group members. Therefore, the Bureau has coordinated with various agencies including the Bureau of Occupational Health Region 12 in Songkhla province,  public health offices at the district and Tambon levels, southern coordinator of the Foundation for Labour and Employment Promotion  and academics to:

Procedure
            Step 1. Meet and explain goals of the project and plan among concerned parties including public health offices at the district and Tambon levels, district hospital, Community Development Bureau, and 16 OTOP groups in eight districts in Songkhla.
            Step 2. Public health offices including the Bureau of Occupational Health Region 12 in Songkhla province, district health officer, and staff from Primary Health Care Unit surveyed among OTOP groups to assess health risks and educate and advice them on ways to improve their working environment, health care and prevention. 
            Step 3. Provide financial support for the improvement of working environment among the OTOP groups with close consultation and advice from the staff of the Primary Health Care Unit.
            Step 4. The monitoring and evaluation team including officers from the Bureau of Occupational Health Region 12 in Songkhla province, staff from Foundation for Labour and Employment Promotion in the South and academics monitored and evaluated  attempts to improve working environment among the target  OTOP groups and give them advice. 
            Step 5. Three outstanding groups have been recruited based on their efforts to improve the working environment
            Step 6  Organize forum among concerned parties to present the results from the implementation and present awards to the outstanding OTOP groups
           
Lessons learned
            1. It was an initial attempt to raise awareness among OTOP groups on occupational health and safety.
            2. It was a collaboration of various agencies including public health offices at the district and Tambon levels and Community Development Bureau which tends to focus only occupational skill development and neglected to work on other related  issues.
            3. Lack of consideration for  project achievement as basis  for promoting policy advocacy, for instance,  advocating occupational health and safety issue as one of the indicators for ranking of  OTOP groups at the provincial level, or pushing  occupational health and safety as one issue of concern among the federation of OTOP groups.
            4. Participating OTOP groups have gained more understanding and knowledge on  occupational health and safety.

Conclusion
           
            Experiences of the Foundation for Labour and Employment Promotion on occupational health and safety vis-à-vis fair trade is just an initial effort to reach out to entrepreneurs, employers, occupational groups such as the OTOP enterprises and other SMEs. Most of these are managed as a family business.  The project aimed at educating and raising their awareness on labour standards and quality of life of workers.  It is with much hope that they will realize the benefit of enhancing the quality of life of producers which will pave the way for fair trade standard that delivers social justice for all.
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