Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2017, published 107th ILC session (2018)

Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138) - Thailand (Ratification: 2004)

Other comments on C138

Observation

Direct Request

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Articles 2(1) and 3(1) of the Convention. Scope of application and hazardous work. The Committee previously noted that children working in the informal economy did not benefit from the protection of the Labour Protection Act of 1998 (LPA), including provisions relating to minimum age and hazardous work. It noted the Government’s statement that there was a concrete effort to expand the legal protection of the minimum age to all groups of workers, including those in the informal economy. It noted, however, that the Home Workers Protection Act B.E. 2553 of 2010 prohibits assigning children below 15 years of age to carry out “home work” – that is to say, work assigned by the hirer of an industrial enterprise to a homeworker to be produced or assembled outside of the workplace – which by their nature may be hazardous to their health and safety.

The Committee notes the Government’s information in its report that the Labour Protection Act (No. 5) B.E. 2560 adopted in 2017 increases the penalties for employers who hire workers who are below 15 years of age or below 18 years of age in work that is likely hazardous. It also notes the Government’s information that the Home Workers Protection Act provides that it is forbidden for anyone to engage home workers to carry out certain types of work, including for example work involving hazardous materials or work that is to be carried out with the use of tools or machines which may be hazardous, which shall be prescribed by ministerial regulation. The Government also indicates that, in accordance with section 20 of the Home Workers Protection Act, the types of work which by their nature may be hazardous to the health and safety of pregnant women or children less than 15 years of age shall also be prescribed in the ministerial regulation. The Government indicates that the Ministry of Labour, through the Department of Labour Protection and Welfare, has drafted the latest version of the ministerial regulation and subsequently submitted it to the Office of the Council of State for its consideration.

The Committee recalls that Article 3(1) of the Convention provides that the minimum age “for admission to any type of employment or work which by its nature or the circumstances in which it is carried out is likely to jeopardize the health, safety or morals of young persons shall not be less than 18 years”. The Committee requests that the Government take the necessary steps to ensure that the types of work prescribed by ministerial regulation and permitted to be undertaken by children over 15 years of age, will not be hazardous to their health, safety or morals. It requests that the Government provide a copy of the ministerial regulations adopted pursuant to the Home Workers Protection Act prohibiting certain types of hazardous work to all persons, as well as certain types of work to children under the age of 15 years.