*****************************************************
The Labour Department today (April 18) launched a container-handling safety campaign that will run until April 29.
Occupational safety officers from the department will visit more than 100 container-handling workplaces in the territory to promote safety measures required for the inspection of freight containers.
A spokesman for the Labour Department said that two workers were burned in a serious accident at Cha Kwo Ling Cargo Working Area when they inspected freight containers laden with lumps of plastic waste recently. He reminded employers who assigned workers to carry out similar tasks to take the necessary safety precautions.
"Employers are responsible for establishing a safe system of work for the inspection of plastic waste loaded inside freight containers. They should conduct a risk assessment for this kind of inspection work. Then they should take into account the hazards identified and evaluated in the assessment when developing a safe system of work.
"In addition, employers are also responsible for providing their workers with safety information, instructions and training. They should supervise the workers to ensure they adopted safe practices when inspecting the plastic waste in freight containers," he said.
The safety measures required for the inspection of freight containers laden with lumps of plastic waste are governed by the General Duties provisions in the Occupational Safety and Health Ordinance and the Factories and Industrial Undertakings Ordinance. Failing to observe the statutory safety requirements could lead to immediate prosecution, serving of improvement notices or suspension notices by the Labour Department.
Employers are invited to refer to the leaflet "Five Steps to Risk Assessment" and "A Guide to the Factories and Industrial Undertakings Ordinance (Section 6A) General Duties of Proprietors" published by the Labour Department when developing their safe system of work for inspecting freight containers laden with lumps of plastic waste. These publications can be obtained free from the divisional offices of the department or downloaded from the department's website at http://www.labour.gov.hk/eng/public/.
Employers and employees are welcome to call the department's hotline on 2717 1771 with further enquiries.
Ends/Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Issued at HKT 18:36
NNNN
