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The Occupational Safety and Health (Display Screen Equipment) Regulation will take effect tomorrow (July 4). It is designed to enhance the occupational safety and health of workers who use display screen equipment for prolonged periods.
The Regulation is designed to protect workers who use display screen equipment almost every day, and continuously for at least four hours during a day or cumulatively for at least six hours during a day.
Under the Regulation, the person responsible for the workplace shall perform a risk assessment of existing workstations within 14 days of the Regulation taking effect. For new workstations, risk assessments must be conducted before the equipment is first used by workers.
"The responsible person shall review the assessment if there has been a significant change in the conditions of the previous assessment or in the workstation," a spokesman for the Labour Department said.
"They shall take steps to reduce any risk identified in a risk assessment as much as is reasonably practicable," he added.
The Regulation stipulates that, so far as reasonably practicable, the responsible person shall:
* keep a record of all risk assessments;
* retain that record for a period of at least two years after the workstation is removed from use; and
* make available to users a copy of the risk assessment record and the record of actions taken after the assessment.
Upon request of the Labour Department, the responsible person shall produce the record for inspection.
"An employer shall, so far as reasonably practicable, ensure that a user employed by him is provided with the necessary safety and health training in the use of workstations," the spokesman said.
"A user of a workstation in a workplace shall, so far as reasonably practicable, conform to the system of work and work practice, and comply with the risk reduction measures," he added.
"The expenses involved in making improvements to workstations would be small. This is because most risk reduction measures, for example, adjusting the height of the chair and repositioning the screen, would not incur any additional cost," he explained.
Non-compliance with the Regulation entails a maximum fine of $50,000 for responsible persons or employers, and in the case of users, a maximum fine of $10,000.
A Brief on the Occupational Safety and Health (Display Screen Equipment) Regulation, a Health Guide and a Code of Practice can be downloaded from the department's homepage (http://www.labour.gov.hk/eng/public/pub5.htm).
In collaboration with relevant employers' and employees' associations, trade unions and professional bodies, the Labour Department has organised a variety of promotional activities to publicise the requirement of the Regulation. These include publications, seminars, health talks and roving exhibitions.
For further information, please call the Occupational Health Service at 2852 4041.
End/Thursday, July 3, 2003
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