Improving Workers’ Rights for Garbage Collectors through Social Force

Abstract

Thailand has, in recent years, shown vigorous efforts to improve its labor standards and workers’ rights in order to meet international benchmarks. Despite a series of action plans, meeting the goals are deemed a challenging task, especially in terms of implementation as these plans primarily count on the roles of government and private sectors in addressing the issue while underemphasizing the involvement of the civic component in the improvement of workers’ rights and labor standards.  This article aims at pointing out how a simple civic role can take part in humanizing garbage collectors’ working conditions, which in turn can foster certain workers’ rights, namely the right to work in a safe and secure environment, if such a role is properly shaped and sufficiently promoted to cultivate a public mindset charged with the responsibility to promote human dignity for all.