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Question No. 5
Reply by the Commissioner for Labour
to Question by Dr. the Hon. HO Kam-fai, OBE, JP
in the Legislative Council on 13 March 1985
Question: Will Government inform this Council whether there has been an increase in the number of industrial accidents in plastic factories since January 1984 and, if
if so, what are
the reasons for the increase and what measures does Government propose to take to lower the accident rate?
Sir,
From 1980 to 1983 the number of accidents reported in
the plastics industry remained fairly constant at about 1,500
a year. In 1984 it increased from 1,518 to 2,196. This is
an increase of over 40%.
This increase in part reflected economic recovery.
1984 was a busy year for the plastics industry, particularly in
the second and third quarters. Unfortunately economic recovery
always seems to bring with it an increase in the number of
accidents at work. This is partly a direct result of the
increased volume of work, partly because the urgent need to
complete orders on time puts pressure on both employers and
employees to skimp on safety and partly because new workers
are taken on and these are lacking in experience and therefore
particularly accident prone.
Another possible reason for the sharp increase in
reported accidents in 1984 is that in July 1983 we introduced
a new simplified system for the settlement of minor employee
compensation cases and in January 1984 we made employee
compensation insurance compulsory. These changes have led to
a significant increase in the number of minor accidents being
reported. In 1984 the number of accidents in the category
assessed under the new, simplified procedure increased by about