Multipronged strategy needed to ensure industrial safety

A fatal work accident involving the falling of a tower crane at a Housing Society construction site in Sau Mau Ping led to the death of three workers and injury of other six last September. The incident has once again aroused public concern about industrial safety and occupational health. The Occupational Safety and Occupational Health Legislation (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill 2022 had just been published in the Gazette before the accident, which significantly increases penalties for occupational safety and health offenses. Government officials and Legislative Councilors with labor background have called for speedier deliberation so that the amendment bill can be passed soon.

The current penalties for such offenses were set some 10 to 20 years ago and long overdue for review. Some believe that increased penalties are good enough to improve occupational safety and protect workers’ well-being. The fact is, preventive measures are far better and more effective than punishment in protecting workers. Life is priceless, no matter how severe the penalty or how large the compensation is, it cannot make up for the loss of life and the harm caused to the family of the deceased when a fatal accident happens.

Right before the tower crane incident, I reminded the chief executive and relevant officials during a Policy Address consultation and stressed that the government should not just focus on expediting housing supply with efficiency and quantity and press the contractors and consultancies to compress the working period which might neglect or even sacrifice the construction safety in order to accomplish the number required to meet the deadline.

Although it is noted that, the progress of some development and construction projects was slow, and taken over 2 to 3 times longer to complete comparing with Mainland or other districts. The questions generally are not related to the construction period, but the long procedure like pre-construction preparatory work, consultation, assessment, funding, land resumption, tendering, and so on. Many pre-construction preparatory works lasted for 10 years or more, but the construction period might take only 3 years. The Government hopes to use Modular Integrated Construction (MiC) method and other innovative technologies to shorten the construction period, the writer agrees in principle, but that might only save a few months and could not compare with streamlining development-related statutory and/or administrating processes vetting and approval procedures for development projects which could condense the development period in years.

Apart from the compressing of the construction time, the Government procurement and tendering process also have impact on construction safety. After the tower crane accident, the construction company was suspended from submitting tender for Government works. When evaluating the tender, the Government would also consider the track record of the construction companies. However, it is just remedies after accidents, but not measures to actively improve construction safety beforehand.

Construction Industry Council and some relevant industries have vigorously promoted Design for Safety in recent years. That is to bring the consideration of the actual potential hazards and risks to each project to the forefront in order to quantify the risk and develop a framework within which design, specification, and planning of project and operation activities to prevent such hazards happening, including using Building Information Modelling (BIM) and other innovative technologies. For instance, monitoring workers wear safety helmet, belt, and other proper equipments in real time, checking workers who are not authorized to enter or walk closely to the high-risk zone and so on to raise the safety level effectively in the construction site.

Nevertheless, facilities related to Design for Safety and safety measures which normally incurred additional cost are not necessary to get additional credits in the Government Tender or even being punished and deducted points in the “lowest bid wins” due to higher cost. The writer therefore suggests that the Government should review the tendering terms and system, and assess those submitted with Design for Safety independently and put those expense so incurred in a separate category to avoid the “lowest bid wins” and forsake the safety related investment and expenditure.

No matter how perfect of the system, technologies and facilities, human factor is one of the most important elements. The manpower shortage and the severe aging problem are common in construction industry nowadays. The authorities should increase and plan to increase the manpower resource of the industry from various aspects, including expanding the relevant undergraduate places and vocational training places, improving the image of the industry to attract youngsters to join, and speeding up the importation of labour without compromising the rights and interests of local workers.

Apart from sufficient staff proper training provisions are essential. The writer has visited Construction Industry Council and some training centres of the contractors in recent years and experienced the training in using new media and technologies such as “virtual reality/VR” to improve workers’ safety perception and awareness. The impact is far more effective than the traditional training by using books or 2D films. The government should promote these technologies and provide adequate subsidies.

Whenever there is an industrial accident happened, it seems only the employer will be punished. It is understood that even the worker involved has committed offence or negligence, he is seldom prosecuted because has been “punished” by the impact of the accident on him. Therefore, it is very crucial to arouse safety awareness for the workers beforehand. Construction Industry Council is currently conducting a study on “points-based system,” hoping to help the industry identify workers with good quality and safety records and give them recognition, but we need specific plans, targets, and timetable for implementation.

The writer hopes relevant officials understand that legislation, prosecution, and punishment are often the simplest and most easy options, but they are not the most comprehensive and effective solutions. The government should proactively embrace challenges and effectively resolve the difficulties of the industry. It should not take that the matter can be solved by punish people and pay fines only.