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Social Protection for Home-based WorkersExecutive SummaryMethodologyThe research on “Social Protection for Home-based Workers” comprises four aspects of study:
The Summary of the Study
This study focuses on social protection projects accessible to home-based workers: the Universal Health Care Coverage or 30 baht Health Care Scheme, Village Fund, Credit Union, and Funeral Fund. Each project can be concluded as follows: The Universal Health Care Coverage is a government health care provision given to all people who are not officially employed. This is a basic rights for people under the Constitution law in 1997. When the project was implemented in 2001, the national health system consists of three major systems: 1. The golden universal health care card. This is
made available in 2 different types: If the card holder has a
card without a TOR (a Thai alphabet), he has to pay 30 baht for
each visit to the doctor. If the card is printed with a TOR, the
card holder does not have to pay anything when consulting a doctor.
Holders of the card with a TOR include elders, children, and handicapped
who earn little income or no income at all. As such, they deserve
the provision of such free services. However, it is ensured that the treatment received by patients under the 30 baht health care scheme is carried out in accordance with proper medical regulations. Once such a scheme is put in place, home-based workers benefit a lot from it. Village Fund or Urban Community Fund is a project where the government gives each village 1 million baht as a loan. Villagers can borrow without having to pay interest for a loan period of one year. This fund is managed by a committee consisting of members from both central and local areas. The central committee sets general rules to be followed, but the details about the loans are decided by the local committee. The latter committee is elected by villagers in each village. The intention of this loan is to serve as a revolving fund for both the village and the city community to be used for the development of the villagers’ profession, as well as to help them in times of crisis. This prevents them from borrowing from informal money lenders. The total amount of 1 million baht has to be maintained. The Credit Union Project is a project to promote saving habit with the emphasis on human development. This was implemented by non-governmental developers in 1965. Though its principles are from foreign helpers, the credit union has played a significant role in developing the community. In addition to disciplining people to save more money, the credit union has provided welfare to members. Any community which has a strong credit union means that people are financially stable and are well-taken care of. It can be concluded that credit union has been influential to other saving groups in Thailand as well. The Funeral Fund is a financial support to the deceased’s family for the payment of funeral rites, and to give moral support for the relatives of the deceased. This acts as a reciprocal treatment and provides a life security, administered by the villagers for the villagers. In the past, monks, community leaders, and villagers helped one another. However, as informal funeral fund becomes more popular, people start to embezzle money and cheat one another. This prompted the government to oversee the fund to protect the poor. The government wants the management of the fund to be transparent and prevent some people from taking advantage of such a fund. There is a law called funeral fund legislation which the government passed to safeguard the fund even better.
The results of the study by having dialogue sessions, as well as interviews with people who play significant roles in their communities can be concluded as follows: 1. The Universal Health Coverage Policy and the thirty baht health care scheme are the most effective and accessible, especially for the poor. There are some aspects which can be improved like the attitude of the service officials and the medical personnel. The 30 baht card-holders feel that they are treated unfairly or being discriminated against though they are entitled to good service. In addition, some illnesses like mental disease and kidney failure, which require longer time to be cured, are covered only partially. This results in more problems for the poor. 2. The government funds for the village and the city community – the villagers in all four regions agree that such funds are not very beneficial. This is due to the fact that there is a central policy for the loan not to exceed 20,000 baht and the loan duration is one year. The policy is not practical as such amount of money is rather small to invest in anything substantial and the repayment period is too short. They can not implement any business or grow anything. Consequently, they have to borrow from source which charges higher interest rate to repay the village loan. On top of that, the village fund committee has set some regulations which hinder the very poor to get the loan. One clear example is some village committee do not approve of the loan to certain people who may not be able to repay the loan in full. Some villages require the borrower to have collateral and this automatically means no loan to the poor. Some require 3-4 guarantors which also results in some people who do not borrow but do so for fear of having to pay for the loan they guarantee for their friends. Thus, they take turn guaranteeing for one another. Another consequence is that some villagers use the loan money to purchase non-income generating objects like mobile phones. When they have to pay back the loan, they are not able to do so, resulting in the dispute between the committee members and the borrowers, which never occurred in the past. The villagers feel that the village funds brought more harm than good to their community. Another important consequence of the fund is the emergence of capitalistic ideals among the communities which in the long run will affect their primary relations. The interdependency among family members relatives and friends will be altered and will affect the community social protection in the long run. 3. The funeral funds – a majority of the funeral funds in the villages are not officially registered as the villagers see that it will bring more complication from the process of collecting money from members. In addition, some funeral funds groups collect money at the site of the funeral instead of collecting it in advance. (Except the Pra-chao-ta-kaew funeral funds group, which is officially registered and they collect the money in advance.) However, there are some official funeral funds tagged to the Bank of Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives in which compulsory membership is required when one asks for a loan. Others have joined official funeral funds with the agriculture cooperatives. One main concern is that the funeral ceremony in some villages are influenced by capitalism luring them to perform the rites to show their social status. As such, have incurred more debt from the elaborate funeral rites. In addition, some funeral funds members only choose to go the funeral of the members as a way of returning gratitude Thus, it has become an unofficial rule that the villagers have to go to the funeral. This will affect the old way of protection which has long existed in the villages. 4. The credit union project – This is the project which promotes people to save and help out other members especially in their welfare. The study found that the community saving groups are set up like the credit union and are the members of the credit union cooperatives which only appears in the Praepan group in the northeast. The south region has saving groups which are established by the villagers, which runs like the credit union. The saving groups in the central and the north have different principles. Some are like the credit union while others have the term saving groups but have the intention of giving loan to the members instead of giving the welfare to the needy. The information shows that majority of villagers, except in the southern part, lack the enthusiasm to save as well as the understanding of saving and how it can affect their life security. There should be more campaign about saving to lessen economics risks which are the essential problems both at present and the future for the home-based workers. The results of the four regions dialogues show that the home-based workers, especially those who live in the rural areas, have tried to give each other a hand more than those in the city communities. This is shown in the funeral fund group. Thai society gives high regards to funeral rites as the death of a family member is one of the biggest losses in one’s life. Whenever there is a funeral, family members, relatives, and friends lend a helping hand. However, this is not the case in the city communities like Bangkok as it does not have funeral funds. The reason may be that people in these communities are from different areas, contributing to their lack of kinship bonding. This is in contrast to the rural community where people are like relatives and have always lived in the same community. This primary relation plays an important role in creating welfare for the group members. Thus, whenever a member perishes, other members give support in both materials and spiritual capacities. This is especially true for the Muslim group where in addition to the family and neighbor’s support, their religion groups also lend a hand. If one looks into the social protection aspect, it is obvious that there are 2 welfare schemes which communities have created to help one another: the funeral funds and the saving groups in all villages. One interesting issue of observation is that the northern saving groups aimed to have more interest rather to help those in need. In the same light, the unofficial funeral funds set up by the villagers themselves show that there are some corruption though the amount is rather small and the problem is solved among the members. The conclusion of the study are as follows. Majority of the home-based workers are females, married and are over 30 years old. Most of them have completed primary education but some have not received any education and have difficulty in getting a proper job. As a result, home-based work are their alternative. However, these workers are considered as informal labors, preventing them from getting government protection. More importantly, they receive a lower wage than standard minimum wage, with longer hours of work and erratic work availability. These are the characteristics of the informal labor sector. Consequently, their income is not constant, bringing about poverty and debt. As such, home-based workers are facing economics risks which are linked to other risks. The study also found that this group’s short term and long term risks both include health problems, (including illness from accidents), lack of elderly security, and children’s education in security. Though the government provides some welfare to these people, they are not fully accessible and some are provided only for certain groups. These result in the inequality of service provision and they affect the home-based workers in that they do not have essential life security. They, therefore, would like to take part in government welfare by paying the monthly saving of 100 bath or some can be as high as 500 baht. Security most required by this group includes area health care like aging security employment security, and children’s education security. One interesting observation is that the home-based workers’ health risks are their major problem both in the short and long-term. It can be speculated that their health problems stem from their work as some work like ring-net making, shoe-making, and sewing involves heavy orders they get from big industries. The nature and the process of industrial work may also affect the workers’ health condition.
The majority of the home-based workers are women, married and over the age of 30 years old. Most of them have only received primary education and some did not get proper education, thereby limiting their choice of professions. Thus, home-based work has become their alternative. They are considered an informal labor sector and not entitled to welfare provisions from the government like other formal labor sectors. To make things worse, they are paid lower wage than the minimum wage even though they work longer hours. In addition, the nature of the informal labor sector work is irregular. As a result, their income is inconsistent and brings poverty and debt to them. Home-based workers face economic risk which is also related to other risks. The study also found out that both short-term and long- term risks are health problem, illness, and accidents. The lack of security in the elders and the lack of proper education for children are not adequate though the government has provided such services. One of the reasons is that the provision is only for one specific group and not all people have access to the welfare. This is even worse for the home-based workers for they lack life security. As a result, they would like to be part of a welfare group set up by the government where they pay 100 baht per month as membership.?? Some can pay up to 500 baht per month. The welfare provision which they would like to have are: health care, ageing care, employment, and children’s education respectively. One interesting observation is that health risk of home-based workers is the essential problem faced by the studied groups. There are both short-term and long-term risks. The question to ponder is if their illnesses are caused by their work or not. Some of the work like ring-net making, shoes making, and sewing are work which they get from the factory. The nature of the products or some of their processes may affect the health of these workers working on them.
Life stories of Pa Lai, Pa Eauy and Pa Pikul are good examples of the study on family and social values which have direct impact on women, especially the roles of men and women, the importance of education, and the economic risks which affect the social security of these three people’s families. In turn, it will also affect the status of their grandchildren in the future. It can be seen that the risk does not limit only on women but also on their family members. Thus, the provision of social protection for women home-based workers is vital as it will have positive effect on their family too. Interestingly, women’s roles and their potential in working for the public, as well as lessons taught by their parents through socialization enhance them to have more conscience to help the society. Their strong point can be the focus of the future study. 5. The Support for Social Protection of Home-based Workers in Thailand 1. The Beginning The first support for social protection of home-based workers in Thailand was in 1986-1996 by the subsidy of ILO-DANIDA. The help was in the form of finance and education. Those who helped were scholars from universities, developers from non-government organizations, and some government officials. Their significant work were to conduct research, educate people, promote unity, build-up network among home-based workers, aid in productivity and equipment, help in marketing and management. This help was a complete cycle provided to all four regions of the country. The issue of home-based work was an interest to many and became socially accepted to varying extents. The home-based workers had their first social recognition in these years but when the project ended, their stories seemed to fade away too. However, there were some non-government organization workers still continued both their work, which was initiated by ILO. Thus, in 1996, Homenet was established as a center for study and the development of home-based workers. It is a non-profit organization with the aim of campaigning for government’s policy in supporting, developing, and protecting those who are home-based workers and those who take work from employers to work in their own homes. There are four regional network of Homenet. The financial support for management came from ILO, UNIFEM, OXFEM and other domestic units which are supportive, such as the Thai Health Promotion Foundation. It can be concluded that Homenet plays a significant role in coordinating network among home-based workers both locally and internationally. 2. Local Support 1. The grouping and organized network among home-based
workers allows them to help each other exchange information, as
well as to access help much easily when needed.
The support for social protection for home-based
workers can be divided into two parts: The Government Support As the government does not give much importance to home-based workers since they are seen as ad hoc or adjunct workers, they are not given social protection. However, they do benefit from the 30 baht health care scheme provided by the government. Unfortunately, but this is only because the government wants to aid grassroots people and the home-based workers are automatically included. It is not specially provided as an assistance for them. However, when Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai was in office, there was an establishment of office for home-based workers. The national statistics office started its first home-based workers study in 1999. The present government closed such office and moved it to the unit of employment. Though the present government is successful in promoting the “One Tambon One Product” (OTOP) project, the idea and the management are not in the same context as the home-based work. In 2004, the Ministry of Labor has issued the ministry regulations which work like a law to protect the home-based workers. The law is called “the protection for people who bring work home.” This law is materialized due to the campaign from Homenet and the workers themselves in 1998. The important issue of the law is that the home-based workers are laborers who get their raw materials from their employers or receive some kinds of equipment from their employers. Apparently, it seems that home-based workers receive basic labor protection from the ministry regulations but in practice, it lacks concrete support. Thus, Homenet and the network for home-based workers still need to campaign for more support from the government. The work of Homenet and the network for home-based workers The work of Homenet in all areas mentioned in this paper has been promoted to a national issue. Their contributions are as follow: 1. The support for the 30 baht health care scheme
to be materialized. However, what the home-based workers would
like to have is that such scheme allows them to have an annual
health check for early detection and prevention of terminal illnesses.
The group would like to see these people have social welfare like other workers. Suggestions There are three suggestions from this study: 1. Management aspect: Due to the complicated problems
of the home-based workers, especially personal problems such as
the acquisition of knowledge, health care, family responsibilities,
marketing and etc., and external problems like the amount of work
and the regularity of work, relationship with employers, wage
agreement, agreement of work, competition and etc., the solutions
need to be serious and continuous. More importantly, the measures
have to be systematic. To achieve this, the process has to be
institutionalized. This is to ensure social space for the home-based
workers. The present administration by Homenet will not enhance
the home-based workers to be as strong as that in India –
SEWA group. What should be done is to improve the strength of
the network of the home-based workers to eventually institutionalize
like a union. This will eventually help them in the long run. |