Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2019, published 109th ILC session (2021)

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

Articles 2(1) and 3(1) of the Convention. Scope of application and hazardous work. The Committee previously observed that self-employed children and 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. In this regard, it noted that the Home Workers Protection Act B.E. 2553 of 2010 which provides protection for informal workers in the industrial sector, 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 also noted the Government’s indication that the Ministry of Labour, through the Department of Labour Protection and Welfare, had drafted the ministerial regulation under the Home Workers Protection Act which prescribes the types of work that are hazardous to the health and safety of pregnant women and children.

The Committee notes the Government’s indication that the Ministerial Regulation, pursuant to section 20 of the Home Workers Protection Act, 2010 has been issued on 2 May 2017. The six categories of dangerous work prescribed in this regulation have been determined by the tripartite mechanisms, including the Home Workers’ Protection Committee. Furthermore, the Committee notes that section 21 of the Home Workers Protection Act further lists four types of work prohibited to homeworkers, including children under the age of 18 years such as: (1) works involving hazardous materials; (2) works carried out with the use of tools or machines, the vibration of which may be hazardous to the persons performing the works; (3) works involving extreme heat or cold; and (4) other works which may affect the health and safety of the worker or quality of the environment. The Committee notes that the nature or types of works referred to under section 21 shall be prescribed by ministerial regulation. The Committee requests the Government to indicate whether a ministerial regulation has been issued pursuant to section 21 of the Home Workers Protection Act, 2010. Noting from the National Children Working Survey of 2018 that a majority of children involved in child labour work in the agricultural sector, family enterprises, or in own-account work, the Committee requests the Government to provide information on the measures taken to ensure that children working in these informal sectors benefit from the protection provided by the Convention.