Article
No.
11
Provisions
9
Comments
All workplaces shall be so laid out and work- stations so arranged that there is no harmful effect on the health of the worker.
Under section 88 of the Public Health and Urban Services Ordinance, the Authority may make regulations in relation to overcrowding or protection of health; the Authority may also require the closing of any premises which are found to be injurious or dangerous to the health of the occupiers. The Ventilation By-laws made under section 88 prohibits the erection of obstacles to the access of ventilation or light to any building. It also restricts the erection of partitions which obstruct lighting and ventilation in any building.
Regulation 24 of the Building (Planning) Regulations provides that every room used for the purpose of an office shall have a height of
-
(a) not less than 2.75 m measured from
floor to ceiling; and
(b) in the case of detached or semi-
detached building not less than
2.5 m measured as aforesaid
provided that there shall not be less than 2.3 m measured from the floor to the underside of any beam and, if any such room has a sloping ceiling, no portion of this room shall have a height of less than 2 m.
Regulation 5(5)(a) of the Building (Standards of Sani- tary Fitments, Plumbing, Drainage Works and Latrines) Regu- lations stipulates that the number of persons employed or likely to be employed in any building used or intended to be used for the purpose of an office or in any other place of work (other than in an industrial undertaking) shall be determined by the Building Authority, and in the case of a building used or intended to be used for the purpose of an office, shall be so determined at the rate of one person for every 9 m of usable floor space.
There is no.regulation laying down the minimum floor space per worker in some shops and offices located in build- ings not designed for such purposes. This is necessary in order to prevent overcrowding in workplaces.