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The construction industry has made remarkable improvement in its safety performance in recent years. However, small-scale projects such as renovation and maintenance of buildings still pose a challenge .
Speaking at the award presentation ceremony of the Construction Industry Safety Award Scheme today (March 19), the Permanent Secretary for Economic Development and Labour, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, said that the number of accidents involving repair, maintenance, minor alteration and addition works made up an increasing share of the total number of construction accidents. In the first three quarters of 2005, 41% of the accidents, or 1 070 cases, were related to these projects.
A number of serious work accidents involved truss-out scaffolds, which are commonly used in repair and maintenance works.
"The Labour Department attaches great importance to the safety of workers working on truss-out scaffolds. We have adopted a targeted approach and more flexible measures to step up our enforcement work. Apart from normal point-to-point inspections, our occupational safety officers also conduct blitz enforcement action at night and during holidays to clamp down on offending contractors. We will issue suspension notices or improvement notices when necessary.
"We have also enhanced co-operation with the Hong Kong Association of Property Management Companies by setting up a reporting mechanism. We can then get hold of schedules of property maintenance works using truss-out scaffolds to facilitate us to take follow-up action," Mr Cheung said.
In addition to strict enforcement action, the Labour Department has enhanced publicity and promotional work to disseminate safety messages to employers and employees. In October last year, the Department and the Occupational Safety and Health Council jointly launched an Anchor Device Sponsorship Scheme for Renovation and Maintenance Small and Medium-sized Enterprises. A subsidy of up to $3,000 is offered to small and medium-sized contractors to purchase fall arresting and anchoring equipment to improve work safety at height. A total of 149 applications has been received so far.
The number of industrial accidents in the construction sector plunged 72.8% from 14 078 in 1999 to 3 833 in 2004 while the accident rate per 1 000 workers also fell 69.6% from 198.4 to 60.3. The number of fatal accidents dropped 63.8% from 47 in 1999 to 17 in 2004.
The work safety and health performance of the construction industry made sustained improvement in the first three quarters last year. The number of construction accidents stood at 2 587 as against 2 889 in the same period in 2004, down 10.5%. The accident rate per 1 000 workers also dropped 4.3% from 59.2 to 56.7.
The Construction Industry Safety Award Scheme was co-organised by the Labour Department and the Occupational Safety and Health Council, the Environment, Transport and Works Bureau, the Hong Kong Housing Authority, the Construction Industry Training Authority, the Occupational Deafness Compensation Board, the Hong Kong Construction Association, the Hong Kong General Building Contractors Association, the Hong Kong Construction Sub-contractors Association and the Hong Kong Construction Industry Employees General Union.
The Construction Industry Safety Award Scheme was well received with 84 construction sites, 47 sub-contractors and 57 safety teams participating.
Ends/Sunday, March 19, 2006
Issued at HKT 15:31
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