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Following is the question by the Hon Leung Kwok-hung and a written reply by the Secretary for Economic Development and Labour, Mr Stephen Ip, in the Legislative Council today (February 7):
Question:
I have received complaints from members of the public that some employers have failed to give notices of work injury accidents to the Commissioner for Labour ("the Commissioner") in accordance with section 15 of the Employees' Compensation Ordinance (Cap. 282). In this connection, will the Government inform this Council of:
(a) a breakdown, by trades and types of injuries, of the number of notices of work injury accidents that the Commissioner received in each of the past three years;
(b) the respective numbers of cases in which the employers failed to give notices of work injury accidents to the Commissioner within the period prescribed by law, or provided false or misleading information in giving the relevant notices, the number of such cases in which prosecution was instituted by the Commissioner against the employers concerned, as well as the number of convicted cases, in the past five years; and
(c) the reasons why the Commissioner did not institute prosecution against the employers in some of the cases referred to in item (b) above, as well as the number of complaints received in this respect?
Reply:
Madam President,
(a) Statistics on the number of reported work accidents and fatal injuries received by the Labour Department (LD) during the past three years with breakdown by industries are shown in Annex 1.
The LD does not compile statistics on the nature of work injuries involved in these cases.
(b) According to section 15 of the Employees' Compensation Ordinance, an employer must notify the Commissioner for Labour of any work accident within 14 days from the date of accident, or the date the accident comes to the knowledge of the employer. If the accident results in the death of the employee, the notice shall be given within 7 days. Statistics on the number of cases of suspected late or non-reporting of work accidents to the Commissioner for Labour in the past five years are shown in Annex 2.
Cases of non-reporting of work injuries to the LD were rare. In the past five years, the LD recorded only one case of suspected furnishing of false or misleading information in connection with matters pertaining to reporting of work accidents. Many cases of late reporting of work injuries involved dispute over the liability for compensation, including dispute on the existence of employment relationship and whether the injury arose out of and in the course of employment. The employers concerned usually require more time for investigation, clarification, and consultation with their lawyers or insurers before making a report to the LD. Most employers would make reports after seeking clarification from the LD, and pay compensation in accordance with the legal requirements thereafter.
Statistics on the prosecution actions instituted with respect to the cases as shown in Annex 2 and the outcome are shown in Annex 3.
(c) In deciding whether to institute prosecution under section 15 of the Employees' Compensation Ordinance, the primary consideration is the sufficiency of evidence. The other factors to be considered include the availability and credibility of the witnesses. Besides, we need to consider any defence which has been indicated by the employer, including any dispute on the existence of employment relationship and whether the accident arose out of and in the course of employment.
Over the past three years, we have recorded three complaints on not taking out prosecution under section 15 of the Employees' Compensation Ordinance.
Ends/Wednesday, February 7, 2007
Issued at HKT 12:59
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