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LCQ9: Occupational safety and health
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     Following is a question by the Hon Kwok Wai-keung and a written reply by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, in the Legislative Council today (January 9):

Question:

     Some employees have relayed to me that occupational safety and health are very important issues because accidents of occupational injuries and deaths not only affect the employees concerned and their families but also place a burden on the entire society. Yet, accidents of occupational injuries and deaths have happened frequently in recent years and the situation has aroused public concern. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(a) of the number of accidents of occupational injuries and deaths in Hong Kong in each of the past five years, together with a breakdown by industry, job type and type of accidents;

(b) whether, in the past five years, there were accidents of occupational injuries and deaths caused by employers violating the safety requirements under the labour legislation; if so, of the details and types of requirements involved, the respective numbers of persons prosecuted and convicted for such offences, as well as the penalties imposed by the court on the convicted persons;

(c) whether, in the past five years, there were employers prosecuted or convicted for failing to give notices of work injury accidents to the Commissioner for Labour within the statutory periods, or providing false or misleading information in giving the relevant notices; if so, of the number of such cases and the maximum penalties imposed by the court on the convicted persons;

(d) given that some healthcare staff have pointed out that the waiting time for public hospital services is rather long, resulting in quite a number of employees injured at work missing their "golden recovery period" and directly reducing their chances of returning to their original work positions, of the policies and measures put in place by the authorities to ensure that the employees concerned have timely access to rehabilitation care services after sustaining injuries, and to encourage enterprises to conduct assessments on the conditions of employees who are unable to return to their original work positions and to redeploy those employees to other positions;

(e) of the latest situation of the authorities drawing up, in the light of the actual circumstances and the uniqueness of various sectors, targeted programmes to enhance employees' awareness of occupational safety and health; and

(f) whether the authorities have any plan to comprehensively review the existing Employees' Compensation Ordinance (Cap. 282), including examining the contents of its provisions and adjusting upwards the levels of compensation, etc; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?

Reply :

President,

     The Government attaches great importance to the occupational safety and health of employees, and is concerned about the compensation for employees who have unfortunately sustained injuries or died at work. The Labour Department (LD) seeks to safeguard the safety and health of the working population through legislation and enforcement, publicity and promotion as well as education and training. We will also review the relevant policies, laws and work practices from time to time to keep abreast of the times, thereby providing appropriate protection for employees' occupational safety and health as well as compensation.

     Our reply to the question asked by the Hon Kwok Wai-keung is as follows:

(a) Over the past five years, an annual average of around 40 000 cases of occupational injuries occurred in workplaces, with fatal cases (including natural death cases) accounting for less than 0.5%.  Injury cases in which employers violated requirements under the safety legislation were mostly industrial accidents. With regard to these industrial injury and fatal cases, LD does not have a breakdown by job type. The breakdown by industry is tabulated at Annex 1.

     Most of the accidents, except those of the construction industry, were of a minor nature and mainly due to "slip, trip or fall on the same level" and "incorrect manual lifting or carrying". As for the more serious accidents that occurred in the construction industry, they were mainly due to "fall from height", "electrocution", "collapse of structures/soil", "lifting operation" and "struck by falling objects".

(b) As a result of the enforcement actions taken by LD in the past five years, the number of prosecutions and convictions against employers or contractors owing to contravention of the Occupational Safety and Health Ordinance, the Factories and Industrial Undertakings Ordinance, and their subsidiary regulations are set out below:

                2008  2009  2010  2011  2012
                                       (Jan¡VNov)

Total no. of   1 887  1 846 1 787 1 703 1 984
summonses
heard

Total no. of   1 614  1 555 1 528 1 447 1 651
summonses
convicted

     The average fine and highest fine for the common categories of offences are tabulated at Annex 2.

(c) In the past five years, the number of summonses heard and convicted in respect of employers' failure to notify the Commissioner for Labour of work accidents of employees within the statutory time limit according to section 15 of the Employees' Compensation Ordinance (ECO) are as follows:

               2008    2009    2010    2011    2012

Total no. of     9       5       7       9       4
summonses
heard

Total no. of     6       5       5       6       2
summonses
convicted

Highest fine $5,000  $4,000  $4,000  $5,000  $10,000
(per summons)
     
     During this period, no prosecution was taken out against employers for providing false or misleading information when giving notice of work accidents.

(d) For employees who suffer from work injury and choose to seek medical service at the public healthcare sector, public hospitals managed by the Hospital Authority (HA) will provide a range of continuous services involving accident and emergency, outpatient, inpatient and rehabilitative services, similar to treatment of other patients suffering from injury. HA has a triage system in place in all of the aforementioned services, and will classify patients according to their level of severity and clinical conditions, in order to ensure that patients are given timely treatment to suit their clinical conditions. HA will also make referrals for patients who are in need of further follow-up treatment, specialist diagnosis, inpatient and rehabilitative care (including physiotherapy and occupational therapy).

     A Voluntary Rehabilitation Programme (VRP) has been launched by LD in phases since March 2003. The objective is to provide, through insurers, an additional channel for injured employees to receive timely and free private sector medical and rehabilitation services. This would facilitate injured employees' better and speedier recovery as well as their safe and early return to work.  Since January 2007, VRP has been extended to cover all industries.

     Insurers participating in VRP will appoint an "Injury Management Coordinator" to coordinate and follow up the injured employees' rehabilitation programmes, which includes communicating with the employers to arrange "Work Trials" and reshuffling of duties after the injured employees have been certified by their attending doctors to be fit for work trials. This would facilitate their speedier recovery and return to their original posts or taking up other responsibilities. Employers will also benefit from employees' early return to work and closure of work injury cases.

(e) LD has taken into account the actual circumstances and the uniqueness of various sectors in drawing up programmes to enhance employees' awareness of occupational safety and health. In view of the higher accident toll in the construction and catering industries, LD, in collaboration with relevant industry stakeholders, has been organising large-scale publicity and promotional activities, including the Construction Industry Safety Award Scheme and the Catering Industry Safety Award Scheme. LD has also been staging diversified promotional and publicity activities, including thematic safety seminars and talks, roving exhibitions, broadcasting of Announcements in the Public Interest on television and radio, as well as production and dissemination of pictorial safety leaflets and notepads, to enhance the safety awareness of the workers.  In addition, LD has been promoting measures for preventing lower limb diseases such as varicose veins and plantar fasciitis to employees and their employers in the retail and catering industries; for preventing heat stroke at work during summer to outdoor workers and their employers in the construction industry, cleansing industry and container yards; and for preventing tenosynovitis of the hand or forearm to clerical personnel, cooks and personal services employees. Relevant activities include showing promotional videos on mobile advertising media, paying promotional visits to workplaces, distributing educational pamphlets and promotional souvenirs, and organising health talks.

     LD targets high risk industries for rigorous enforcement actions, so as to urge employers to comply with safety legislation and ensure the safety and health of employees. In 2012, LD launched two special enforcement operations targeting repair, maintenance, alteration and addition works. As a result, LD issued 215 suspension notices (SN) (three times of 2011) and more than 260 improvement notices (IN) (two times of 2011), and initiated more than 360 prosecutions (2.5 times over those of 2011).  In addition, LD in conjunction with the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department conducted a joint blitz operation on electrical work safety in October 2012. During the operation, around 50 workplaces were inspected within two weeks. As a result, LD issued 7 SNs and 42 INs with 48 prosecutions initiated.

(f) The Government will review the labour legislation from time to time, having regard to social changes and the pace of economic development of Hong Kong and the actual local circumstances to ensure that such legislation can cater for the latest situation. The ECO has been amended in a number of areas in recent years.  For example, in 2000, the system of settling compensation claims for fatal cases under ECO was improved; in 2005, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (ie SARS) and Avian Influenza A were made compensable occupational diseases under ECO; and in 2008, the medical treatment, examination and certification given by registered Chinese medicine practitioners were recognised for the purpose of employees' entitlement to benefits under ECO.

     Moreover, the Government reviews the levels of compensation provided for under ECO every two years in accordance with the existing mechanism. Adjustment of the amount of compensation items which are related to the earnings of employees is made by reference to the wage movement to ensure that the levels of compensation can catch up with wage growth. As for items related to the expenditure on the procurement of services or goods, adjustment of the compensation amounts is made according to the inflation rate to maintain the purchasing power of employees. In the latest round of review, the Government further made a special arrangement to revisit the wage and price changes in the three years covering 2009 - 2011 in view of the impact of the implementation of the statutory minimum wage from May 2011 on wages and prices. On July 17, 2012, the Legislative Council also passed the Government's proposal to raise the amount of eight ECO items according to the review findings. The new levels of compensation have taken effect since July 20, 2012 for the benefit of the injured employees and their family members.

     We will adhere to the established mechanism in reviewing the levels of compensation under ECO every two years. We will also continue to pay attention to the situation in society and various aspects, listen to views from all quarters and monitor the practical needs in undertaking reviews and improvements of ECO as appropriate. We will, having regard to the overall interests of Hong Kong, endeavour to strike a reasonable balance between protecting employees' rights and the affordability of employers.

Ends/Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Issued at HKT 14:26

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