weekly
Written by: Wu Huan Shen
2021-02-06 13:00
Last update date: 2021-02-06 13:00
On January 22, 2021, a part-time cleaner in King Lok House, King View Village, Tuen Mun, while at work, fell from the garbage chute on the 35th floor and died in the underground garbage room due to a misstep; on the winter solstice of December 2017, Kam Pang, Kam Tai Court, Ma On Shan A cleaner in the pavilion was "upside down" into the garbage chute for suspected weightlessness and died after being sent to the hospital. In August 2010, a male cleaner in Taiyuan Village, Tai Po, suspected of losing weight and fell straight from the garbage chute on the 19th floor to the garbage room. The body was even transported to the Ta Kwu Ling landfill for dumping.
Over the years, there have been many similar tragedies, but why have they failed to stop the frequent occurrence of accidents?
Is it the design defect of the garbage chute that "killed" people, or the garbage disposal policy is incorrect?
Deadly garbage chute?
Public housing and HOS flats under the Housing Department or Housing Authority generally have "tumble-down" garbage chutes.
Although this type of garbage chute is convenient for the cleaners to pass through the garbage chute on each floor and throw the garbage directly into the garbage room on the ground. However, once the garbage in the chute is blocked, the worker must probe into the slot to inspect and clean. Falling into the trough caused an accident.
After the tragedy in Tai Yuen Village, Tai Po, in August 2010, the coroner of the coroner suggested in a report the following year that the Housing Department must improve the safety design of garbage chutes of the same type at the time, and narrow the garbage chutes of 45cm x 45cm on each floor. It is 35cm x 25cm to ensure the work safety of cleaners.
The Organizing Officer of the Clean Workers Union, Leung Chi-yin, pointed out that the Housing Department did indeed carry out works to narrow the garbage chutes in public housing estates under its management. Instead of carrying out the same improvement project, the problem was handed over to the corporation and the property management company.
As a result, the similar tragedies of the 2017 Winter Solstice and last month happened in HOS estates and public housing estates for sale that have not yet improved the design of the garbage chute.
Even if the garbage chute is narrowed or heightened, the design of the "drop-out" garbage chute is still full of risks for cleaners at work. However, the HD's practice of delegating management responsibility to the corporation is too negligent.
In fact, after the accident at Kam Tai Court in 2017, the authorities quickly narrowed the garbage chute of the entire housing estate with aluminum strips and posted safety instructions next to the chute, which shows the improvement of the safety design of the garbage chute It is not a difficult task; however, similar tragedies have happened again recently. Are the authorities planning to only improve the garbage chutes in Mountain View Village?
On the 21st of last month, a cleaner accidentally fell into a garbage chute and died in Jingle Building, Mountain View Village. Worship offerings were still placed on the scene of the accident.
(Data Picture/Photo by Huang Weimin)
Deadly garbage policy!
In addition to improving the safety design of garbage chutes, the 2011 Coroner's Report also recommended that cleaning companies provide adequate safety training and work tools to cleaners. By 2019, the Occupational Safety and Health Bureau is recommended to the Occupational Safety and Health Council for the accidental death report of cleaners in Kam Tai Court. And the Labour Bureau provides training for all cleaning staff in Hong Kong to clean up blocked garbage chutes to improve workers’ safety awareness when cleaning garbage; the contractor who arranges training should ensure that every employee participates in the training and keep complete training records; the property management company should Make sure that each garbage slot is locked, and put up warning notices outside the garbage room door.
However, these suggestions failed to prevent accidents from happening.
The reason is simple. For many years, neither the Housing Department, the management company nor the cleaning contractor have seriously reviewed the garbage disposal policy, let alone improve the working environment.
Liang Zhiyin said that Hong Kong does not have a garbage disposal policy, and there is no procedure for the entire garbage disposal.
How to clean up rubbish has always been determined by the housing estate itself. The situation is chaotic and the authorities have not seen any improvement over the years.
For example, the cause of death report recommends narrowing the notch. When the authorities implemented the relevant remedial measures, firstly, all housing estates were not forced to carry out improvement works. Secondly, the modification method was not uniform. Some used 3 metal bars to narrow the notch, and some changed. A new type of "drawer-like" notch is formed, and the cleaner may not be familiar with the relevant operations.
The Labour Department recently inspected various garbage chutes in Cheung Wah Village and found that the narrowing notch process of four buildings still needs improvement. Therefore, the four buildings were ordered to stop the chutes until the modification was completed.
(Information Picture/Photo by Chen Leilei)
For another example, after the 2017 Winter Solstice accident, the Occupational Safety and Health Bureau issued leaflets and pamphlets explaining how to deal with the blockage of garbage chutes.
Obviously, this is a perfunctory approach, because when the regulations are not "mandatory," one can imagine the number of contractors who will arrange staff training.
Most of the time, the newly hired cleaners are learning by doing with the old, and there are even temporary OEM cleaners who are allowed to work, and they have no previous experience in working at the garbage chute.
How can there be no accidents in this situation?
It is very outrageous for cleaners not to receive proper training. Even the protective materials needed for work are not adequately allocated.
Under the outsourcing system, although the funding party will supervise or remind the outsourcer, the consequences and penalties that the outsourcer has to bear are not severe, leaving the outsourcer more room to exploit the cleaners.
For example, the contract does not list the amount of materials needed for work. As a result, the cleaners often only have a pair of gloves and a mask, and they have to travel to several buildings to clean up the garbage.
Not to mention work-related injuries or benefits, cleaners dare not fight for them, afraid of losing their jobs.
Under the outsourcing system, it is very outrageous for cleaners not to receive proper training. Even the protective materials needed for work are not adequately allocated.
(Information picture/Photo by Lu Nuojun)
Life-saving method
However, the above-mentioned distress is only a small part of the daily cleaning workers face.
According to the relevant training of the Labour Department, the supervisor should be notified when the "plug" is encountered, and sufficient safety measures should be taken when "passing" and the seat belt should be buckled.
However, the reality is that there are very few housing estates with safety belts at the garbage chute, and cleaners need to clean up the garbage within a specified time, otherwise the residents will complain.
During the festival, the amount of garbage will increase, but the time to clean up the garbage will not increase.
Not only that, some cleaning companies will only appoint a cleaner to be responsible for the entire floor, but the policy does not regulate this.
Liang Zhiyin mentioned that the trade union has repeatedly advocated the method of "pushing buckets into the elevator" to collect garbage in buildings and avoiding the use of "down-type" garbage chutes.
However, the Housing Department has not responded positively, and often refuses to adopt suggestions on the grounds of fear of complaints from residents.
Of course, how to collect garbage is only one part of the entire garbage cleanup process. The lack of a strong garbage cleanup policy for a long time is where we need to reflect, including how to do a good job of sorting from the source, reducing the amount to recycling; how to strengthen public education, Face up to the garbage disposal, face up to the work of cleaners; how to supervise the outsourcing system, how to provide training, how to protect the income and welfare of cleaners, etc.
None of this can be solved with just a few perfunctory leaflets or posters, and I don’t know how many tragedies the SAR government has to wait for before it is willing to take the steps of reforming the garbage policy!
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