Occupational health and safety management in small and medium-sized enterprises: An overview of the situation in Thailand

This study aimed to present an overview of the situation of occupational health and safety management in small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) to gain information related to employment, welfare and health facilities, health education, accident statistics, occupational health and safety management and safety activities. A self-administered questionnaire was developed, comprising check-box questions and open-ended questions. The targeted industries were small (20-99 employees) and medium size enterprises (100-299 employees) in Thailand, producing 24 products, which were the most exported products from Thailand during a 5-year period (2000-2004). One hundred forty responses (22.4% response rate) were received from small enterprises and two hundred twenty-nine (14.7% response rate) from medium size enterprises from 51 provinces all over Thailand. Most of the enterprises arranged several welfare facilities and take good care of health and hygiene of workers. The highest numbers of accident cases were from the production enterprise with 150-199 employees and from the industrial sector of engineering. Essential safety elements for SMEs are accident reports, accident investigation and safety inspections. It is clear that the SMEs in this study had better health and safety management than expected, probably because their products were in the group of the twenty-four highest exporting (by value) commodities of Thailand or they were forced by customers. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.