Tandhanskul N, Duangsa-Ad S, Pongpanich C, Pungok A, Punpeng T, Juengprasert W, Kawakami T
Occupational Health Training and Demonstration Center, Ministry of Public Health, Samutprakarn.
J Hum Ergol (Tokyo). 1995 Jun;24(1):105-15.
Small-scale enterprises are playing a vital role for the national economy in Thailand, creating employment in both urban and rural areas. The improvement of working conditions and occupational safety and health, together with improved productivity has long been a priority. How we could practically provide owners and workers of small-scale enterprises with opportunities for improvement action has been our concern. In the present project, we have adopted a new programme of action which emphasizes participation, a positive approach and locally made solutions. The project site was in Samutprakarn province, an industrial zone near Bangkok. Four local small-scale enterprises participated in the action programme. They were a lead smelting, a dry-cell battery plant, a wet-cell battery plant and a pesticides factory. The programme consisted of the following steps. 1) A demonstration training session was conducted to motivate the enterprises' representatives to take action. Locally invented improvement examples were presented and small group discussion was organized for facilitating their action. 2) The participants were encouraged to use a checklist for assessing safety, health and ergonomic risks in their own workplaces. Concrete action plans were established based on their checklist results. 3) The improvement action started, in which step-by-step approaches were emphasized. Advisory and supporting roles of expert teams comprising the authors and other professionals were important to accelerate and sustain the action at these enterprises. On the basis of this self-help action, the participants were enabled to make many improvements at their workplaces. These improvements developed by their own initiative were multi-factorial. They included 1) machine and electrical safety device, 2) workstation redesign, 3) materials handling improvement, 4) establishing new welfare facilities such as canteens or bathrooms and 5) work environment improvement such as better lighting or enclosure of hazardous substances. Our experiences showed that there was a large potential to initiate local improvement actions and duplicate them in a participatory manner. Of particular importance were the positive attitudes towards self-help workplace action and the focus on locally available solutions.
小型企业在泰国国民经济中发挥着至关重要的作用，在城乡地区创造就业机会。长期以来，改善工作条件、职业安全与健康以及提高生产力一直是优先事项。我们一直关注的是，如何切实为小型企业的业主和工人提供改进行动的机会。在当前项目中，我们采用了一项新的行动方案，该方案强调参与、积极的方法和本地制定的解决方案。项目地点在曼谷附近的工业区沙没巴干府。四家当地小型企业参与了该行动方案。它们分别是一家铅冶炼厂、一家干电池厂、一家湿电池厂和一家农药厂。该方案包括以下步骤。1）举办了一次示范培训课程，以激励企业代表采取行动。展示了本地发明的改进实例，并组织了小组讨论以促进他们的行动。2）鼓励参与者使用一份清单来评估其工作场所的安全、健康和人体工程学风险。根据清单结果制定具体的行动计划。3）改进行动开始，其中强调了循序渐进的方法。由作者和其他专业人员组成的专家团队的咨询和支持作用对于加速和维持这些企业的行动至关重要。基于这种自助行动，参与者能够在其工作场所进行许多改进。这些由他们自己主动做出的改进是多方面的。包括1）机器和电气安全装置，2）工作站重新设计，3）物料搬运改进，4）建立新的福利设施，如食堂或浴室，以及5）改善工作环境，如更好的照明或有害物质的封闭。我们的经验表明，发起本地改进行动并以参与方式进行推广具有很大潜力。特别重要的是对自助式工作场所行动的积极态度以及对本地可用解决方案的关注。
