Hong Kong construction sector ‘to roll out app monitoring worker safety’ amid rise in industrial accidents
- Sources say major contractors with Hong Kong Construction Association, which represents 300 industry members, have agreed to adopt app monitoring worker safety
- Any workers with record of poor occupational safety will undergo additional training to ensure they meet contractors’ shared standards, they add
Hong Kong’s construction sector plans to introduce an app to monitor workers’ performance in response to a recent rise in industrial accidents, the Post has learned.
Sources at the Hong Kong Construction Association, which represents 300 industry members, last week said major contractors had agreed to adopt a new points-based app that kept transparent records on workers who had violated safety measures.
“The system does not intend to punish workers, but we do hope to avoid all accidents at construction sites,” an insider familiar with the app’s development said. “When a life is lost, contractors or subcontractors are the ones held accountable.”
According to government figures, 1,397 industrial accidents were reported by the construction sector during the first half of this year.
Additional data for this year showed 17 construction sector employees had died in industrial accidents as of November 28.
The insider said the app would help to reduce risks and make it easier to track down those responsible for accidents, adding that some industry members had developed bad habits and had a poor sense of occupational safety.
A handful of companies had already adopted the system at their work sites, the source added.
The insider said the app would ensure contractors could keep track of workers performing various jobs across different sites and check their individual performance on the platform, which complied with personal data privacy laws.
Any workers with a track record of poor occupational safety would undergo additional training to ensure they met contractors’ shared standards, they added.
The app was developed nine months ago and originally only used by Hip Hing Construction, with the company creating the system to ensure on-site safety officers could flag any safety violations found during inspections.
A company source said no workers had been suspended for poor performance under the new system, adding that the app featured a rewards mechanism to recognise safety-conscious staff.
“We are more than happy to share this app with our fellow companies … they can get around the app and find out what function best suits their own needs,” the source said.
Meanwhile, the association insider said the industry body needed several months to wrap up a consultation with other sector stakeholders about introducing the app more widely.
“We are at the stage where the industry is aware of the need to take a step forward,” the source said.
Workers who refused to use the app if it became standard procedure would not be allowed to clock in at construction sites, the insider added.
The renewed focus on safety standards at construction sites came amid government efforts to clamp down on industrial accidents, with officials prosecuting those behind serious incidents.
Authorities earlier this year charged a project manager for a construction site and a subcontractor with manslaughter over the deaths of two men in a suspected biogas leak underground at a construction site in September.
The site was managed by the MTR Corporation, which had outsourced the work to contractor Raft (E&M) Engineering.
In October, the government struck Aggressive Construction Engineering from the Development Bureau’s list of registered contractors over the deaths of three workers during a tower crane collapse at a public housing site in Sau Mau Ping last year.
Wong Ping, chairman of Hong Kong Construction Industry Employees General Union, last Friday said the new system should be introduced as soon as possible, noting that the number of accidents showed no signs of slowing down despite an increase in penalties under the Occupational Safety and Health Ordinance earlier this year.
Under the amended law, employers convicted of breaching safety regulations can face a maximum fine of HK$10 million (US$1.28 million) and up to two years in prison.
But the union chair said that some workers could take issue with the introduction of the new monitoring system, suggesting that the industry body review the app six months after it was rolled out.
“Nobody likes to be regulated,” he said. “Some workers might not welcome [the new system] … but we will try to work with the association cooperatively.”
Association for the Rights of Industrial Accident Victims chief executive Faye Siu sin-man said that companies should avoid pointing the finger at just workers and contractors, arguing that the blame often lay with multiple parties.
Siu said the government was already making a concerted effort to boost occupational safety standards and penalise contractors, suggesting that the new app could also help to monitor construction site supervisors.
“I agree with the general direction [of the app], but there are a lot of details to clarify,” she said, citing issues such as what constituted poor performance or whether supervisors were penalised alongside workers for acts of negligence.
The Labour Department said it had stepped up measures to curb unsafe work practices and had set up a special task force to carry out rigorous inspections and enforcement actions at construction sites.
The task force had inspected 1,060 construction sites between November 13 and 24, resulting in 210 warnings being issued and 35 prosecutions, it added.
