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Following is the question by the Hon Henry Wu King-cheong and a written reply by the Secretary for Economic Development and Labour, Mr Stephen Ip, in the Legislative Council today (March 10):

Question:

It is reported that the Labour Department launched the promotional programme on Wider Use of Safety Shoes in 1998. Starting from the same year, the former Works Bureau stipulated in tenders for works that contractors should provide workers with industrial safety shoes that met the requirements. Contractors in breach of the requirements would be penalised, including prohibition from bidding for government works projects. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(a) of the annual numbers of casualties in work injury accidents resulting from failure to put on industrial safety shoes since three years before the launch of the programme;

(b) of the measures the authorities and related organisations have taken to promote the programme to contractors and workers since the launch of the programme; and

(c) whether the authorities have reviewed the effectiveness of the promotional work on the programme; if they have, of the results; if not, the reasons for that?

Reply:

(a) The promotional programme on Wider Use of Safety Shoes ("the Programme") was launched between September 1998 and April 1999, the objective of which was to enhance safety awareness of construction workers about the use of safety shoes, thereby reducing foot injury cases due to lack of protective footwear. The Labour Department does not have statistics on work-related foot injury cases before 1998. The relevant statistics from 1998 to 2003 (first three quarters) are as follows:

  Year                 Number of foot injury cases

  1998                               3,722

  1999                               2,253

  2000                               1,864

  2001                               1,346

  2002                                 887

  2003 (first three quarters)     495

(b) Although the Programme was concluded in April 1999, the Labour Department has continued to promote the importance of industrial safety to contractors and construction workers through a wide range of activities. Over the past five years, we have joined hands with the construction industry and labour organisations to implement a territory-wide "Construction Industry Safety Award Scheme". Through open competition, the Scheme seeks to identify and award contractors, sub-contractors, management staff and workers with outstanding safety and health performance.

In the course of site inspections, Occupational Safety Officers of the Labour Department will also advise contractors to provide safety shoes and remind workers to wear them.

(c) Upon completion of the Programme, the Labour Department conducted a survey of the effectiveness of the Programme with participating organisations. The findings indicated that the number of workers wearing safety shoes had increased by about 50% when compared with the figure before the Programme.

The Programme has successfully reduced the number of foot injury cases in the construction industry. The number of foot injury cases involving construction workers came down by 76% from 3,722 cases in 1998 to 887 cases in 2002.

Ends/Wednesday, March 10, 2004

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