On June 30, 2022, the Prime Minister and Minister of Defense General Prayuth Chan-ocha presided over the opening of the 34th THAILAND SAFE@WORK event. The Labour Minister, Mr. Suchart Chomklin, gave an opening speech about the event’s objectives. Assistant to the Labour Minister Mr. Surachai Chaitrakulthong, Secretariat to the Labour Minister, Mr. Suthep Chitvong, Permanent Secretary of Labour, Mr. Boonchob Suttamanaswong, Assistant Minister from the Prime Minister’s Office, performing duties for the Ministry of Labour Police Major General Nantachat Supamongkol and Mr. Suthi Sukosol, the Ministry of Labour’s Spokesperson (on politics), Mrs. Thienrat Navamawat, along with the Ministry of Labour’s senior executives and related agencies also joined the opening ceremony at the Royal Jubilee Ballroom, IMPACT Exhibition and Convention Center, Muang Thong Thani, Nonthaburi Province.
General Prayuth congratulated organizations on receiving the award of success and pride from personnel at all levels in the organization participating in promoting occupational safety, health, and working environment to succeed. The government has laid out an important roadmap on labour, which the Ministry of Labour has expedited to solve many problems, such as the prevention of human trafficking and the illegal entry of migrants from neighbouring countries. It has also contributed to the policy of promoting the country’s economic potential, promoting roles, and utilizing opportunities in the ASEAN Community, including developing and promoting science, research, development, and innovation. The government has accelerated the implementation of economic policies in the development of transportation and communication infrastructure, including industrialization that uses advanced technology to increase the capabilities of small and medium enterprises and the development of special economic zones to promote the country’s large-scale investment projects. However, driving these economic policies to success requires the most important cog, which is the workforce. Therefore, the government has asked everyone to help raise the skills of workers in line with driving the country’s economic development by creating a learning system and training people to have quality, discipline, generosity, and awareness to take care of themselves, their families and society, to be safe and secure. He said that he believes that we will all realize that creating a safe culture in our society is not easy and takes time. The Ministry of Labour must promote the workforce’s quality of life as an important goal in terms of occupational safety, health, and the sustainable well-being of workers. All relevant agencies must support each other and look at the working conditions in the future to keep up with the changing situation and trajectory, to provide support and encouragement to workers to continue working in a suitable working environment, free from accidents and all occupational diseases.
The Labour Minister stated that the event’s objectives were to drive three values in building a preventive Thai culture: awareness, discipline, and care. The goal is to make the 37 million Thai people in the workforce happy. If the Ministry of Labour is dedicated to creating sustainable values for working people, we can be confident that at least half of the country’s population will be qualified human resources who can take care of themselves and be an important force in the country’s development towards stability.
“Workers in all walks of life are a valuable resource to drive the country’s economic development. The ways of work are changing rapidly. Therefore, all sectors have to prepare workers to keep pace with the world, to be prepared for new ways of working life. I firmly believe that the three elements of building a preventive Thai culture building are awareness, discipline, and care. This is in line with the theme of today’s event on a “Forward Culture of Prevention for Safety Thailand,” concluded General Prayuth.
On this occasion, the Prime Minister presented a plaque to the event’s sponsors and plaques of honour at the platinum level, the Zero-Accidents in the Workplace Award 2022, to 38 organizations. He also presented plaques of honour for the project to develop an organization following the occupational health, safety, and condition management system in work for 2021, at the platinum level, to 27 business establishments and awarded five prizes for the project on developing innovations in occupational safety and health for 2022.
Mr. Suchart said that the Ministry of Labour’s Institute Of Occupational Safety And Health (Public Organization), or TOSH, and related agencies organized the event from June 30 to July 2, 2022, at the IMPACT Exhibition and Convention Center, Muang Thong Thani. It aims to create awareness among employers, employees, and people involved in both the public and private sectors, to realize the importance of occupational safety, health, and working environment, under the concept of creating a “Forward Culture of Prevention for Safety Thailand.” The activities at the event consisted of an award ceremony for organizations with no accidents in the workplace, which caused employees to stop working, and those with a systematic safety management system. There were academic seminars both in onsite and online formats, exhibitions, and demonstrations on safety at work, including contests and informational activities on safety at work to allow people and related organizations to have the opportunity to exchange knowledge and experience. The event aims to develop concepts and solutions for a preventive Thai culture on occupational safety, health, and sustainable well-being. This year, they excelled in the shared values of safety in 3 areas: awareness, discipline, and care.
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Division of Public Relations
30 June 2022
