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Scaffolding fatal work injury | The deceased left behind elderly parents, the Workers' Rights Association hopes the authorities will publish the investigation report

2022-05-13T08:24:59.323Z


Chan Siu Fung, a 48-year-old scaffolder, unfortunately fell from a height to his death during the construction of a scaffold on Wu Chung Street, Yau Ma Tei last Saturday (7th). Chen Shi was very filial to his parents and lived with his parents.


Chan Siu Fung, a 48-year-old scaffolder, unfortunately fell from a height to his death during the construction of a scaffold on Wu Chung Street, Yau Ma Tei last Saturday (7th).

Chen Shi was filial to his parents and lived with his parents. He was the breadwinner of the family. The two elders lost their homes. Fortunately, Chen's brother took care of them.

The two elders are still grieving the loss of their son, and it is difficult to accept the cruel reality that their son has passed away.


Chen has been working as a scaffolder for nearly 30 years. The incident happened at about 11:00 a.m. last Saturday (7th). Fall to death.

Today (13th), the Industrial Casualty Rights Association held a press conference on the deadly flying shed accident. It read out the handwritten letter from Chen Zhaofeng's father, and pointed out the causes of frequent shed workers' casualties, labor insurance issues, and suggestions for construction improvement.

Today (13th) the Industrial Casualty Rights Association held a press conference on the deadly flying shed accident.

(Photo by Weng Yuhui)

Chen Bo mentioned in the letter that the Labour Department is a government department that protects the rights and interests of workers, and its main responsibility is to protect the safety and vital rights of workers.

However, in the past six months, there have been many accidents involving the deaths of scaffolding workers. The Labour Department believes that a serious analysis and review must be made.

He said that scaffolding is an indispensable job in the construction industry, and it is also the most dangerous link.

The Labour Department should be given special treatment and should not be ignored.

Chen Bo also suggested that the Labour Department should form a responsible elite, conduct careful analysis, and study a set of feasible methods to effectively protect the workers. Propaganda and advertisements are just empty talk.

Chen Bo hopes that the authorities will form a professional team to regularly inspect the equipment at the work site of the scaffolding workers, especially to pay attention to whether the seat belts meet the specifications, whether the belts meet the standards, etc.

In order to avoid further casualties of scaffolding workers, he requested the Labour Department to truly shoulder its responsibilities, set up an elite team to perform tasks, and go deep into the workplaces of scaffolding workers to observe and understand their real work conditions, conduct monitoring, Guide safety work, prevent problems before they occur, reduce accidents, and avoid the recurrence of tragedies.

Xiao Qianwen, director general of the Labour Rights Association, mentioned that according to the data, from 2012 to the present, there have been at least 18 fatal accidents related to flying sheds.

According to industry estimates, more than 2,000 fly sheds are being erected every day, representing thousands of workers who face extremely dangerous working conditions every day.

Xiao said that many workers reported that many times they did not have a firm point to fasten the tail rope to prevent falling from the building.

Since most buildings in Hong Kong do not have tie-down devices on the exterior walls, workers need to find a suitable location to make eye circles for securing points.

However, in many cases, if a worker wants to pierce the eye, he may be opposed by the owner, the owner of the roof and the property management company.

Therefore, under various restrictions, in the end, the workers can only choose to fasten the tail rope to the scaffolding, the railing of the dog arm, or tie the indoor furniture, or even fasten it to the indoor cypress to act as a "firm point for human flesh", or even prefer to Discard seat belts.

In addition, due to insufficient equipment, workers can only use worn or substandard equipment, which cannot protect workers at all. Just like in this accident, the safety rope used by Chen at that time is suspected to be a "climbing rope".

At the same time, due to insufficient supervision by the Labour Department, the design of the external walls of the building prevented workers from affixing three explosive screws, which made the dog boom unstable, and violated the Factories and Industrial Undertakings Ordinance, the Construction Sites (Safety) Regulations and the Employees' Compensation The ordinance has too low penalties, insufficient deterrence, and insufficient safety awareness of scaffolding workers, resulting in frequent accidents.

Siu Qianwen hopes that the authorities will speed up the legislation to optimize the reporting mechanism of construction projects, so that the Labour Department can obtain relevant information to conduct inspections and supervision; and send letters to all property owners and property management companies in Hong Kong, requesting them to cooperate with contractors in construction, allowing them to work on external walls or Indoor private places or public wells are installed with stabilizers, etc., to prescribe the right remedy for various accidental causes.

Siu Qianwen expressed disappointment at the Labour Department’s refusal to disclose the results of the accident investigation report, believing that no investigation report was made public after the investigation was completed. The information was refused to be disclosed on the grounds that it was considered unreasonable.

She pointed out that the public investigation report can enable the industry and the public to have a clear understanding of the dangers of the process, so as to prevent it.

Deadly Work Injury | Safety rope breaks, scaffolder in Yau Ma Tei stumbles and falls

Source: hk1

All news articles on 2022-05-13

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