ABSTRACT

This chapter shows that reforms were forthcoming in the wake of Kader. Kader had paid into a compensation fund which entitled victims and their families to between 20,000 and 40,000 baht. Analysis of the interviews suggests that once Kader had paid the compensation, they were able to regain the moral high ground and state they had done all they could reasonably have been expected to do. However, to limit the assessment of health and safety reform following Kader as purely that involving minor legislative reform would be a mistake. The chapter provides several examples which indicate the need to evaluate reform in context not as an abstract or technical exercise but one intimately connected to the local environment. The compensation scheme was strengthened and a number of new occupational health and safety initiatives introduced or reworked. After the immediate concern with compensation, the Campaign for the Support of Kader Workers turned its attention to health and safety reform.