BN3720 Health & Safety Management | Worker Registration System Assessment in Hong Kong Among Construction Workers

Worker Registration system Assessment in Hong Kong among Construction Workers
BN3720 Health & Safety Management
University
Assessment
Name
Date

2
Table of Contents
Table of Contents.........................................................................................................2
Introduction...................................................................................................................3
High risks construction works.......................................................................................3
A systems model of construction accident causation...............................................3
Legislations and technical guidelines...........................................................................5
Legislations...................................................................................................................5
Construction Workers Registration Ordinance (Chapter 583)..................................5
Occupational Safety and Health Ordinance” (Chapter 509).....................................5
“Factories and Industrial Undertakings Ordinance” (Chapter 59).............................5
Cap 618 Lifts and Escalators ordinance...................................................................5
Technical guidelines.....................................................................................................6
Safety Measures on working in Hot weather version 3 2019...................................6
Guidelines on safety on design, installation and cast maintenance anchors version
2017..........................................................................................................................6
Guidelines on Work-Above-Ground Safety (November 2016).................................6
Guidelines on Safety of Lift Shaft Works: Volume 3 – Throughout the Occupation
Stage of Building (November 2013)..........................................................................6
Guidelines on Safety of Tower Cranes (Version 2 - July 2010)...............................7
Effectiveness of the registration system.......................................................................7
Recommendation..........................................................................................................8
Conclusion....................................................................................................................8
References...................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
The construction industry continues to be one of the most dangerous and hazardous
occupation field globally despite the changes in safety Acts since the implementation
of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970. Workers in this sector are
continuing to experience increased rates of fatalities compared to other types of
industries according to the Bureau of Labour Statistics (2011). In the year 2012, the
construction industry was coupled with an estimate of 856 fatalities accounting to
19% of all industries based on data collected by the Bureau of statics (BLS, 2013). It
is estimated that there about 60,000 fatalities globally being reported (Lingard,
2013). In the United States, the number of fatalities in the construction industry rose
by 16% from the year 2011-2014 (BLS, 2015). In the United Kingdom between 2010
and 2014, there were about 217 reported fatal injuries (Yi and Chan, 2016)
meanwhile in Hong Kong there was a total of 3467 accidents and 20 fatalities in
2014 (Labour Department, Hong Kong). In the year 2018, there were 3726 injuries
with 44 fatalities (OSH, 2018). In this sense, construction continues to be a
fundamental avenue for danger and many safety measures have been formulated to
improve the safety and health standards (Lingard, 2013). Majority of the construction
workers are the frontline of job sites and are subject to various chemical hazards and
physical dangers in the building process. These hazards are a risks factor of leading
to acute and chronic illness among the workers. In this focus, assessment of high
risks construction works, legislations and application of registration systems as
safety precautions will be highlighted.
High risks construction works
Building and construction industry has been viewed for a long time as an industries
and dangerous filed involving difficult work and tasks such as lifting operations and
working in heights. The accident rates are often used for benchmark in construction
safety performances. The construction workers continue to spend an increased
amount of time in high risks construction places which increases the overall
incidence of fatality among this group (Chan, 2016). Accidents are frequent due to
increased access to dangerous sites leading to an increase in injuries and reported
fatalities. In Hong Kong, the prevalence of construction accidents is high due to low
implementation and availability of safety measures and the presence of unskilled
labour. The underlying consequences are increased rates of injuries (Jazayeri and
Dadi, 2017).
A systems model of construction accident causation
Various models have been postulated in the past to explain construction industry
accidents in a bid to predict accident occurrence. A systems model of causation in
the figure below demonstrates a cause-effect relationship in the Hong Kong
construction industry and how various interplay factors contribute to occurrence and
spike in accident and fatalities. A positive sign showcase changes in the factor of X
and Y changes in the same direction while a negative sign signifies a change in the
opposite way.