Following is the transcript of remarks by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Chris Sun, on workplace safety and Guidance Notes on Prevention of Heat Stroke at Work, at a media session after attending radio programmes this morning (May 13):

Reporter: Mr Sun, we would like to follow up on the bee attack incident yesterday. What more can the Government do to protect workers working outdoors? Also, on the heat stroke warning system, why isn't it legally binding? Would the Government consider making it legally binding? 

Secretary for Labour and Welfare: The incident of bee attack yesterday is of course a great concern to us. It is part of our overall system to ensure that workplace safety is given priority. For employers, the key is they have to assess the risk of workplaces under their remit to make sure there are enough measures in place so that workers in these workplaces are provided with adequate protections. Every employer has to follow this general direction and guideline.

     Referring to the arrangements on prevention of heat stroke, what we are going to publish next Monday is a revised Guidance Notes on Prevention of Heat Stroke at Work on ways to make sure we have better protection for workers to protect them against heat stroke. This time round we are going to have a new system. We devised three levels of Heat Stress at Work Warning, from Amber, Red to Black. It remains a guideline, because when you look at the risk of heat stroke at workplaces, it varies a lot. It depends on weather conditions but also the very unique situation of each and every workplace as well as the measures in place, they all have a role to play. Having a guideline with clearer description and more prescriptive requirements is going to provide much better protection to workers than before, this is what we believe a better way. Of course for those who have clearly violated the guidelines in a very blatant way, we can pursue them by using the employers' general duties under our law. Eventually they will be subject to legal punishments for those who just turn a blind eye to the guideline.          

(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)

Ends/Saturday, May 13, 2023
Issued at HKT 12:05

NNNN