Contractors 'avoiding responsibility' over deaths of construction workers
Justice officials urge tougher laws and call on judges to pierce corporate veil and sentence individuals at fault when labourers are killed
It's time Hong Kong placed criminal liability for work-site deaths squarely on the shoulders of individuals, justice officials say.
Contractors are hiding behind a "corporate veil" to avoid taking responsibility for the human cost of the city's breakneck-paced building works, they say.
Nearly 500 workers have died in industrial accidents in the past 25 years - an average of 20 a year, the Sunday Morning Post found after examining Labour Department statistics.
But no one has been imprisoned in connection with any of the deaths, despite legal changes in 1989 that opened the way for the prosecution and possible imprisonment of individuals over such accidents. Low fines imposed by courts and inadequate compensation awards are also believed to have heaped further misery on grieving families.
"If I drive my car in a reckless and dangerous manner and kill someone, I go to jail. So why doesn't the same principle apply to the same behaviour on a work site?" a senior legal source asked.
Chan Kam-hong, chairman of the Association for the Rights of Industrial Accident Victims, said: "No one has ever been jailed. The law has lost its ability to deter."