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Following is a question by the Hon Leung Yiu-chung and a written reply by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, in the Legislative Council today (April 16):
Question:
Some members of the construction industry have pointed out that the occurrence of three fatal industrial accidents at the construction sites under the same principal contractor over the past six months reflects that both the occupational safety measures taken by that contractor at its construction sites and the inspections of construction sites conducted by the Labour Department are inadequate. Regarding industrial accidents in the construction industry, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the numbers of (i) construction site workers, (ii) safety officers at construction sites and (iii) construction sites, in the territory in each of the past five years;
(2) of the respective numbers of surprise and notified inspections conducted at construction sites, and the respective numbers of suspension notices and improvement notices issued, by the Labour Department in each of the past five years;
(3) of the respective numbers of injury and fatal cases of the industrial accidents in the construction industry in each of the past five years, broken down by name of the principal contractor concerned; the major causes of such industrial accidents; and
(4) whether it has formulated new measures to reduce the occurrence of industrial accidents in the construction industry; if it has, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply :
President,
My reply to the Hon Leung Yiu-chung's question is set out below:
(1) The numbers of construction site workers, safety officers at construction sites and construction sites in Hong Kong in each of the past five years are set out in Table 1.
(2) All inspections to construction sites conducted by the Labour Department (LD) are surprise inspections. The relevant figures in each of the past 5 years are set out in Table 2.
(3) The information on industrial injuries and fatalities in the construction industry in each of the past five years is set out in Table 3.
(4) In collaboration with the trade associations, workers' unions, the Construction Industry Council, and the Occupational Safety and Health Council, LD has formulated a set of measures to reduce the occurrence of industrial accidents in the construction industry. These measures include: (i) further stepping up inspections and enforcement actions, particularly for those high-risk processes such as work-at-height, lifting operations and electrical works; (ii) strengthening the monitoring of work safety of major works projects, particularly the safety management systems in respect of high-risk processes such as tunnelling works and operation of heavy plant and machineries; (iii) enhancing the content of the mandatory safety training courses for construction workers by introducing case studies and analysis of serious accidents involving fall of persons from height, lifting operations and electrocution; (iv) expediting the release of Work Safety Alerts, giving a brief account of serious work accidents and reminding the industry of taking safety precautionary measures; (v) strengthening promotional activities on thematic work safety (e.g. work-at-height, electrical work, infrastructure projects, etc.); (vi) conducting visits to construction sites and roving exhibitions, and producing simple and easy-to-understand promotional leaflets on occupational safety and health in languages of ethnic minorities; (vii) launching a work safety accreditation scheme for repair, maintenance, alteration and addition works to enhance work-at-height safety of workers through provision of safety training, subsidies for the purchase of fall arresting devices and conducting safety audits; and (viii) launching a mobile platform sponsorship scheme to minimise the risk of workers falling from improper ladders.
Ends/Wednesday, April 16, 2014
Issued at HKT 16:21
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