Hong Kong’s construction industry must improve safety culture among workers to reduce deaths, sector leader says
- Thomas Ho, Construction Industry Council chairman, says 70 to 80 per cent of fatal industrial accidents this year caused by mentality and habits of workers
- Tougher punishments have failed to reduce number of deaths, he adds
Hong Kong’s construction sector must improve its safety culture among workers to enhance risk management and precautionary measures as tougher punishments have failed to reduce the number of fatal industrial accidents, an industry leader has said.
Thomas Ho On-sing, chairman of the Construction Industry Council, on Saturday said 70 to 80 per cent of fatal industrial accidents this year had been caused by the mentality and habits of frontline management staff and workers.
“We did some analysis on more than 20 fatal accidents this year and found that most of them were actually caused by habits and culture,” he told a radio programme.
“We must improve the culture. It is expected that there may be a transition period of three to five years to change the culture.”
He added that no dynamic risk assessments were conducted at the construction sites involved in several of the accidents, which could have prevented the deaths.
Ho said the council had promoted a series of principles and measures within the industry to ensure safety, including eliminating risks arising from the design of structures, putting in place temporary project management schemes and making use of technology at construction sites.
He added that the council had held discussions with the sector to introduce a standard points system for frontline managers and workers to encourage good practices, which he hoped could be rolled out in the first half of next year.
To tackle industrial accidents, authorities raised the maximum sentences under the Occupational Safety and Health Ordinance in April. The top fine for breaches was raised from HK$500,000 (US$64,000) to HK$10 million, with the jail term being two years.
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But Ho said that tougher punishments had failed to reduce the number of deaths.
“The number of fatal accidents has not decreased since April, but in fact, there has been a slight increase. We haven’t seen an impact [from the tougher measures],” he said.
The Association for the Rights of Industrial Accident Victims earlier said it had been following up on 74 work-related deaths this year. Among the 28 people who died in industrial accidents, 25 worked in the construction industry.
Among the 74 cases, 18 were due to sudden death, 13 involved falls from height and five were related to lifting operations.
The group also cited data from the Labour Department which showed 145 work-related fatalities were recorded in the first half of this year, higher than the figures for the same period in 2022 and 2021.
The Hospital Authority on Friday revealed that a construction worker employed by the contractor of the United Christian Hospital expansion project was injured at work and hospitalised on Wednesday last week.
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The 63-year-old worker was in a stable condition and receiving treatment at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, a spokesman said, adding the authority had reported the incident to police.
The contractor has been instructed by the authority to provide an explanation for its failure to report the incident under established protocols.
The authority has also asked for a thorough investigation and detailed report, along with immediate suspension of heavy-duty construction procedures until measures have been introduced to ensure the safety of workers.
On Thursday, a recycling firm employee was killed after being trapped under an abandoned cargo loader near Hong Kong International Airport.
The incident marked the second fatality in three days, following the death of a worker at a landfill site in Ta Kwu Ling on Christmas Day.
