Regulatory Reform in Light of Regulatory Character: Assessing Industrial Safety Change in the Aftermath of the Kader Toy Factory Fire in Bangkok, Thailand
| Author | Fiona Haines |
| Published date | 01 December 2003 |
| Date | 01 December 2003 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0964663903012004003 |
| Subject Matter | Journal Article |
REGULATORY REFORM IN
LIGHT OF REGULATORY
CHARACTER: ASSESSING
INDUSTRIAL SAFETY CHANGE
IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE
KADER TOY FACTORY FIRE IN
BANGKOK, THAILAND
FIONA HAINES
University of Melbourne, Australia
ABSTRACT
Effective safety regulation remains an elusive goal for many industrializing nations,
with the economic philosophy underpinning economic globalization ambivalent
towards regulation, while successive industrial disasters demonstrate a need for
improvement. This article explores this nexus between globalization and regulatory
reform through research into the aftermath of the Kader Toy Factory Fire in Bangkok,
Thailand. It argues that reform following such events cannot be assessed by reference
to the nature of the regulatory techniques adopted without consideration of the regu-
latory context. Rather, research on regulatory change needs to develop an appreci-
ation of the interaction between the regulatory framework and the social context. The
article develops a theoretical concept of ‘regulatory character’ as the means to con-
ceptualize and explore this interaction. Regulatory character is informed by an under-
standing of the importance of cultural ordering to regulatory change and regulatory
compliance as outlined by Hood (1998) and Selznick’s (1992) argument that cultural
order is moulded by the economic and political dependencies. Thai regulatory char-
acter is then described and used to assess safety reform in Thailand following the
Kader Toy Factory Fire. Finally, the interaction between Thai regulatory character
and globalization is explored through the data on the aftermath of the fire.
SOCIAL &LEGAL STUDIES 0964 6639 (200312) 12:4 Copyright © 2003
SAGE Publications, London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi,
www.sagepublications.com
Vol. 12(4), 461–487; 038416
INTRODUCTION1
The Kader Toy Factory fire on 10 May 1993 in Bangkok, Thailand, was
the largest factory fire in history with 188 lives lost and a further 469
injured. This toll was exacerbated by the conditions at Kader. Fire exits
were blocked, the Kader buildings were substandard, freedom of movement
of workers severely curtailed and large piles of flammable material rarely
cleared away. The rapid spread of the fire fuelled by these conditions meant
that at the height of the conflagration, workers’ only choice of escape was to
leap out of upper storey windows. Those who survived did so because the
dead bodies of their co-workers who had jumped before them broke their
fall. Less than an hour after the fire took hold, the structural steel in the build-
ing melted and the factory collapsed trapping those left inside (Chua and Wei
Ling, 1993).
The awful reality of the fire led to a public outcry demanding something
be done. The regulatory changes that ensued included reforms to fire safety,
building standards, compensation regimes and occupational health and safety
(OHS) standards. New building standards were drawn up and fire preven-
tion standards were updated and translated by the bureaucracy from the US
model developed by the National Fire Prevention Authority (NFPA). Com-
pensation outcomes had the highest profile within Thailand. After a long
intense international activist campaign, Kader workers were paid the highest
compensation in Thai history, paid not from the rudimentary government
scheme but directly from the company itself (Charoenloet, 1998; Dilokvid-
hyarat and Charoenloet, 2000). In addition, worker access to the state com-
pensation fund was broadened to include all businesses that employed ten
workers or more. Activist attention then turned to health and safety reform,
with measures such as an annual safety day, health and safety committees and
prohibition notices were introduced. However, demands for wide ranging
reforms, including the development of a dedicated health and safety act,
failed. This was despite initial progress with the Ministry of Labour and
Social Welfare drafting an occupational health and safety bill with input from
activists. Before the bill was debated in parliament, however, the department
replaced it with another of their own, more in keeping with current practice.
Protest against this move meant that this second bill was not enacted either
and the change process lapsed. Beyond these more traditional mechanisms
was the development of an OHS management standard under a separate min-
istry, the Ministry of Industry. TIS 18000 was modelled on international stan-
dards aimed at quality management (the ISO 9000 and 14000 series). With
this initiative, the Thai government was hoping to use market processes to
raise safety standards.
This article provides an assessment of these regulatory changes2in Thailand
following the Kader fire. I argue that any assessment of regulatory change in
the context of economic globalization cannot simply map the spread of
rationalist models of regulation through technocratic policy channels nor can
it make a priori assumptions about the impact of global economic change on
462 SOCIAL & LEGAL STUDIES 12(4)
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