A number of fatal industrial accidents have occurred one after another in recent months.
On December 2 last year, 46-year-old shed worker Chen Rongbin was working on the outer wall of a building in Hung Hom. He was suspected of falling from the tenth floor due to the sudden looseness of the dog arm. He was sent to the hospital for rescue and eventually died. On December 6, 34 years old. A male worker surnamed Dai fell to the first floor after being hit on the head by a piece of concrete on the outer wall of the North Point Huangdu Cinema Building when he was demolishing the building. , A 41-year-old male worker surnamed Luo fell from a 16-meter-high working platform while working at the Xi Tso Wan Road site in Tsing Yi, and was sent to hospital for rescue and eventually died.
Behind every seemingly simple number of casualties is a life lost suddenly, a family torn apart.
In this winter that is not yet cold, thousands of families are reuniting and celebrating the new year, but the family members who have suffered an accident have lost their important support and financial support forever.
As a modern city in Hong Kong, similar tragedies have been staged countless times. Although the Labour Department has expressed "high concern", "very sadness" and "deep condolences" after each incident, the relevant occupational safety and health measures and legislation have not been adopted. Great improvement.
If all sectors of society continue to despise industrial accidents and are unwilling to provide adequate protection for workers at risk, the tragedy may only repeat indefinitely.
"Improving Occupational Safety and Health" Special Report No. 2
Lack of occupational safety and health awareness in many parties
The last Legislative Council Panel on Manpower announced on 21 September 2021 the occupational safety situation in the first half of the year (see the table below), among which there were 131 fatal cases, an increase of about 15% compared with 113 in the same period last year; and the total number of casualties 14,018 cases, an increase of about 12% compared to the same period last year, among which the construction industry has the highest fatality cases as always.
Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor expressed emphasis on labor rights and interests as early as February 2019 when she attended the labor sector cocktail party. She also pointed out that the Labor Department is reviewing the penalties under the Occupational Safety and Health Ordinance (commonly known as the "Occupational Safety and Health Ordinance"), which has been in use for 20 years. Submit the relevant bills to the Legislative Council annually.
However, after the "anti-revision turmoil" broke out in Hong Kong, the parliament was deeply caught in the "internal committee shutdown", and the society experienced the new crown virus pneumonia epidemic again. Carrie Lam's promise has not been fulfilled.
Until the end of December last year, the SAR government finally updated the work progress and planned to revise the "Occupational Safety and Health Ordinance" within half a year, greatly increasing the penalty to warn employers to take safety measures - it is proposed to increase the maximum fine of the employer's general liability clause from 500,000 to 300. The maximum sentence of imprisonment will be increased from 6 months to two years. In very serious cases, a maximum fine of 50 million yuan and three years in prison are recommended.
Although "increased penalties" can act as a deterrent to employers, it may not be able to comprehensively increase the attention of all stakeholders to occupational safety and occupational health.
In an interview with Hong Kong 01, the director general of the Industrial Injury Rights Committee (Workers' Rights Association), Siu Qianwen, said that occupational safety concerns health and life, but many accidents are caused by "low-level mistakes", which shows that many parties lack occupational safety awareness, which leads to inconvenience. Less occupational safety and health measures are in vain.
For many years, the Workers' Rights Association has helped the occupationally injured or the bereaved, helping them fight for their rights and reintegrate into life.
Earlier, when the Workers' Rights Association reviewed the major incidents of work-related injuries and occupational safety in 2021, it expected a slight increase in occupational deaths throughout the year.
The Workers' Rights Association expects a slight increase in occupational fatalities throughout 2021, and the high number of industrial accident fatalities has shown no sign of declining for many years, which is really worrying.
(Hong Kong 01 cartography)
Occupational safety measures are in vain
As of December 7 last year, the Labour Department had recorded a total of 23 fatal industrial accidents, with the construction industry accounting for 22.
Over the years, the construction industry has had the highest fatality rate and accident rate among all industries, among which "falling from height" is the most common type of accident; in terms of the number of accidents, the catering service industry accounts for the most, but the number of fatal cases is zero (see table below).
Xiao Qianwen explained that this is because most work-related injuries in the catering service industry are due to minor cases such as cuts, scalds, slips and falls on the kitchen floor. Although frequent, they are far from fatal.
At the same time, the construction industry, decoration and maintenance works are the industries that the trade unions and the whole society pays close attention to due to the outstanding statistical results of the accident figures.
"In conclusion, the main reasons for accidents are insufficient risk assessment and insufficient safety awareness." Xiao Qianwen pointed out to "Hong Kong 01" that every time an accident occurs, many employers will always blame the workers for not wearing safety equipment, even the SAR government. They also tend to target workers for publicity. It can be seen that employers and the authorities generally still believe that the main responsibility for safety lies with workers. However, in fact, apart from workers, contractors, government, property management, project parties and other parties have the responsibility to raise safety awareness , and do our best to take protective measures together to avoid a tragedy.
Xiao Qianwen mentioned that the safety settings of some construction sites are already restricted, and workers have no way to protect themselves.
For example, workers need to hang the independent lifeline of the seat belt in a stable place (commonly known as the "sheep eye ring" for the site), but the owners, property management and other stakeholders often think that the sheep eye ring will damage the appearance and do not install it, resulting in nowhere for the seat belt. Fixed, turned into decoration; in addition, many building designs ignore future maintenance needs and do not set up platforms, so workers need to temporarily erect shelters, which increases safety risks and accidents in disguise.
Over the years, the number of fatal industrial accidents in the construction industry ranks first among all industries, and it is an industry that is of great concern to the society.
(Hong Kong 01 cartography)
Working mentality ignores workers' lives
Similar situations often occur in private projects for two reasons: first, the power inequality between workers and employers makes it difficult for the former to ask the employer to make improvements even if the former predicts that there is a risk on the job site; second, the employer’s own safety responsibilities Awareness is not high, and workers are usually not forced to comply with safety standards and use safety equipment, but more emphasis on work efficiency.
These two major reasons are closely related to the gray area where the responsibilities are not clearly defined in the Occupational Safety and Health Regulations. When it is difficult to trace the employer's legal responsibility, the employer will naturally despise the safety risk of workers.
Not only that, there are also big problems in the aftermath mechanism of industrial casualty accidents.
Xiao Qianwen said that many workers are the breadwinners of their families. When disaster strikes, family members need not only emotional comfort, but also financial assistance. However, some employers do not purchase insurance for workers, causing family members to face financial difficulties and have nothing to live for. Relying on, and even though the Employee Compensation Assistance Fund Authority provides assistance such as "employees' compensation" and "relief payments" to workers injured at work and other eligible persons, before receiving assistance from the Fund, documents are usually required to prove that workers cannot receive Employer compensation is a time-consuming process.
Having been working on industrial casualty rights for many years, Xiao Qianwen recalled her past experience. In many cases, the relevant senior management in charge of the project also wanted to do a good job of safety details so as not to affect the progress and interests of the project, but did not allocate enough resources to safety measures, and the supervisor in order to catch up with the project. The progress often ignores the details of the security risks, so the effectiveness is greatly reduced after the implementation of the project manager, director, supervisor, supervisor and other personnel.
Xiao Qianwen sighed: "Everyone only has the mentality of part-time jobs. For middle-level people, safety is not the most important thing."
The reason is that Xiao Qianwen believes that the current project management in Hong Kong is not standardized, and the construction does not require a license. With the business registration certificate and the purchase of project insurance, the construction can be started.
It would be much better if the licenses were compulsorily linked to the project, and the employers were urged to pay attention to safety issues by means of suspensions and other methods.
But nowadays, not only is there no strict licensing system, but government departments outsource the work together with safety responsibilities.
Xiao Qianwen, director-general of the Labour Rights Association, said that family members of industrial accident parties often take a long time to receive compensation and face a heavy financial burden.
(Photo by Huang Baoying)
Government regulation is not yet in place
For example, in an accident in Siu Ho Wan on November 18, 2021, a worker was carrying out maintenance works on a drainage pipeline on a 6-meter-high platform in a manhole. Because the management did not provide personal protective equipment and safety belts, he eventually fell down. Inflicted one death and three injuries.
It can be said that the government originally had sufficient power and ability to eliminate risks, but it never paid attention to it.
It is true that the Labour Department has occupational safety services, which are provided by occupational safety officers. The services include inspecting workplaces to ensure that relevant ordinances are being enforced, investigating accidents and providing advice on reducing risks to employers and employees, etc. The results of implementation are questionable.
Xiao Qianwen gave an example. The security director is a surprise inspection in name, but before entering the site, someone has already informed the site staff to deal with the inspection, and the other party will immediately tidy up or even suspend work.
"When they are not at work, how can the staff of the Labour Department see dangerous behaviors at work?" Siu Qianwen also pointed out that even if potential risks are found on the site, they will usually issue a ticket to warn workers to pay attention Safety, and once the staff of the Labour Department leaves, the site often continues to operate as usual.
She believes that if the government strengthens inspections and law enforcement, for example, if there is a safety problem, it will stop work until it improves, and it should be able to prevent fatal safety accidents at the source.
However, one of the current occupational safety regulations of the SAR Government is through the Occupational Safety and Health Council established in 1988 as a statutory body to provide consultancy and consulting services, including assessment of the safety management and measures of the organization, as well as the occupational safety and health performance of employees.
However, Xiao Qianwen believes that as long as employers fail to consider the safety of workers from the bottom of their hearts, they cannot carefully eliminate all risks from top to bottom, and those official consulting services are just going through the process and doing it for the sake of doing.