(with photos)
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The Labour Department and the Occupational Safety and Health Council (OSHC) have jointly launched a subsidy scheme for small and medium-sized contractors to purchase fall-arresting equipment.
Addressing a seminar on work safety for truss-out scaffolds today (October 27), the Permanent Secretary for Economic Development and Labour, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, said the scheme was open for application with immediate effect.
"Each successful applicant will be able to receive a subsidy up to a maximum ceiling of $2,000. With an estimated expenditure of around $1.5 million, the scheme is expected to benefit about 600 small and medium-sized enterprises," he said.
All enterprises receiving the subsidy have to send their employees to attend the relevant safety courses organised by OSHC. The courses are free of charge.
Mr Cheung pointed out that there were 12 fatal accidents involving truss-out scaffolds from 2000 till now, and 13 workers had fallen from height and died. The Labour Department was particularly concerned that so far this year , five workers died in such accidents.
"According to our investigations, the brackets used for supporting the scaffolds had only one to two bolts embedded into the walls. Under such circumstances, they could not withstand the weight of the scaffolds and easily loosened out, thus leading to the accidents," he explained.
Mr Cheung noted that the 13 workers who died in the past six years had not put on safety harnesses or did not attach them to independent lifelines. This was the major cause of the fatal accidents.
He stressed that the Labour Department had issued clear instructions on scaffold works to stakeholders a few years ago. When building, dismantling and working on a truss-out scaffold, contractors should comply with the safety design and structural standards. They should also ensure that their workers wear safety harnesses and attach their harnesses to independent lifelines to prevent them from falling from height.
The Labour Department had, in the past two years, enhanced its promotional and educational programmes. Seminars, talks and workshops were jointly organised with OSHC, trade associations, trade unions and relevant organisations to publicise and promote safety measures for truss-out scaffolds.
"Unfortunately, many small-scale maintenance contractors did not carry out the necessary safety measures according to the laws, or did not comprehend fully the safety requirements.
"Because of environmental constraints, workers engaged in maintenance works at height often have problems as to where to anchor their fall arrestors. Therefore, they may overlook the matter and fail to attach the fall arrestors to fixed anchorages or even did not use fall arrestors. In fact, they need not take the risk," he said.
Mr Cheung pointed out that if workers could fix the fall arrestors appropriately and correctly, this would help to reduce the number of work accidents. Most of the fall arrestors on sale are user-friendly. The "transportable anchor device", which costs about $2,000 to $3,000, is one of the examples.
He noted that many renovation and maintenance contractors were small operators with limited means. If they had financial difficulties in carrying out safety improvement plans, they could now apply for subsidies from the OSHC to purchase the "BS EN 795" Class B fall arrestor devices to minimise the risk of accident.
Mr Cheung said that as small-scale works employed only a few workers with work activities lasting only a short time, works of this scale were not required to be reported to the Labour Department. As a result, supervision would not be easy.
To tackle these, the Labour Department established a reporting mechanism with the Hong Kong Association of Property Management Companies in March last year, through which members of the association would notify the department of their schedules of property renovation and maintenance works using truss-out scaffolds for the department's prompt follow-up inspection.
"Apart from enhancing inspection by district, the department also takes strict enforcement action at night, on Saturday afternoons, Sundays and during holidays to clamp down on errant contractors and will issue suspension notices when necessary," he said.
The Labour Department's occupational safety officers conducted two special operations in May and August this year targeting property renovation and maintenance projects. In addition, a two-week blitz operation was also conducted earlier this month targeting truss-out scaffold workplaces.
At the three operations mentioned above, the department inspected 3,793 building maintenance projects and launched 57 prosecutions against contractors. Forty-two suspension notices, 117 improvement notices and 347 warnings were also issued.
Mr Cheung stressed that the concerted efforts of the Government, contractors and workers were required to enhance the occupational safety performance of the construction industry. He urged stakeholders to collaborate and minimise the number of accidents.
The seminar held today was jointly organised by the Labour Department and 10 organisations including OSHC, Provisional Construction Industry Co-ordination Board, Construction Industry Training Authority, Hong Kong Construction Association, Hong Kong and Kowloon Scaffolders General Merchants Association, Hong Kong Construction Sub-contractors Association, Hong Kong Association of Property Management Companies, Hong Kong Federation of Electrical and Mechanical Contractors, Hong Kong Construction Industry Employees General Union and Hong Kong and Kowloon Bamboo Scaffolding Workers Union.
Ends/Thursday, October 27, 2005
Issued at HKT 15:45
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