The government proposes to amend occupational safety and health legislation and increase the penalties for violations. The Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Law Chi-kwong, wrote in his blog today (22) that although the overall industrial accident rate has dropped significantly in the past 20 years, in the past 10 years, industrial accidents have resulted in deaths. The number of cases has been maintained at about 20 per year, and there is no downward trend. Some serious violations have resulted in death, but the fines are obviously too light, and the relevant regulations have not been revised for more than 20 years. He proposed to appropriately increase the deterrent power of penalties, and also described the work of this amendment as "vast", including setting the maximum fine for indictable crimes at 10 million yuan.
The government proposes to amend the occupational safety and health laws and increase the penalties for violations. The first reading will be held in the Legislative Council this Wednesday (25th).
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Law Zhiguang said that the government will read the "Occupational Safety and Occupational Health Legislation (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill 2022" in the Legislative Council this Wednesday (25th) to improve the protection of employers who are reckless and cause death or serious injury to workers. penalty.
Proposed maximum fine for indictable offences to be set at $10 million
Law Zhiguang described in his blog that the amendments to the ordinances this time are very "vast", involving two ordinances that have not been adjusted for 28 and 25 years respectively. Among them, the most amended part involves 230 articles. He mentioned that the two ordinances It has not been revised for more than 20 years.
The authorities have also proposed setting the maximum fine for an indictable offence at $10 million.
Luo Zhiguang pointed out that the overall industrial accident rate has dropped significantly in the past 20 years. The industrial accident rate per 1,000 workers has dropped from 51.7 in 2000 to 12.4 in 2020. However, the number of deaths caused by industrial accidents has remained at an annual rate in the past ten years. About 20 cases, there is no downward trend.
He mentioned that in some cases of apparently serious violations leading to death, the fines were obviously too light. deterrent."
He said that in the adjustment of penalties, three factors are mainly considered, including inflation that has been in place for more than 20 years, and the difference in the financial capabilities of labor and management; the third is to appropriately increase the deterrent power of penalties.
Luo Zhiguang pointed out that although the overall industrial accident rate has dropped significantly in the past 20 years, the number of deaths caused by industrial accidents has remained at about 20 per year in the past 10 years, and there is no downward trend.
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The Administration proposes to amend the law to address employer liability, allowing the Labour Department to initiate prosecutions in the form of indictable offences and to be tried by higher-level courts.
He stressed that only in exceptional circumstances where reckless acts or omissions constituted extremely high culpability and resulted in the death or serious injury of workers, the relevant recommendations were cited for prosecution.
The amendment proposal also adds a new provision. If a company is convicted under indictable procedures, the court must refer to the company's relevant financial year turnover on the date of the crime when the court is required to impose a sentence, so as to assist the court in assessing the defendant's operating scale and financial capability. Deterrent fines.
Enhancements to the Construction Sites (Safety) Regulations to be tabled in Parliament in the early stages of the next government
However, Law also mentioned in his blog that it is necessary to amend the law to strengthen the deterrent force, but it is not enough to improve occupational safety and health. It is also necessary to continuously adjust the strategies of education, training, publicity, inspection and law enforcement. The work on the Site (Safety) Regulations will not be submitted to Parliament until the early stage of the next government, requiring contractors to report to the Commissioner for Labour small-scale but high-risk construction projects, so that the Labour Department can assess the risks of the projects as early as possible Conduct occupational safety and health inspections.
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