OCCUPATIONS, WAGES AND LABOUR ORGANIZATION
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Industrial Accidents. 4,948 industrial and occupational accidents (99 fatal) involving 5,029 persons were reported and investigated. This is 151 more accidents, with 13 more fatalities than in 1957. Of the total, 2,806 (35 fatal) were in registrable workplaces, an increase of 641 accidents (16 fatal) over the previous year. Compared with 1957 there was an increase in accidents per thousand industrial workers from 14.1 to 15.5 for all accidents, and from 0.124 to 0.194 for fatalities. It is thought that the widening of the scope of the Workmen's Compensation Ordinance has resulted in the reporting of more accidents, but the rise in accidents, and in particular in fatalities, is disappointing and an intensification of the industrial safety publicity campaign is being carried out.
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Welfare. Every registrable workplace must supply first aid equipment and drinking water, and all plans for new factory buildings must include provision for dining or rest rooms. An increasing number of industrial managements appreciate the im- portance of welfare facilities for their workers, and many have progressed beyond the minimum standards required by the Labour Department. Besides dining and rest rooms, more than thirty clinics are provided by industrial concerns and at these doctors attend periodically each week to treat occupational and general diseases of the workers concerned and sometimes their families, in some cases free of charge. In some industrial undertakings canteens, non-profit-making co-operative stores, subsidized meals, free cooking facilities, barber shops, laundries, reading rooms and school rooms are provided. Many of the large concerns in the Colony provide accommodation for their workers. Among the more prominent of such housing schemes are those of the Taikoo Dockyard and Engineering Co. of Hong Kong Ltd., in associa- tion with the Taikoo Sugar Refining Co., Ltd., which pioneered workers' housing projects in Hong Kong over fifty years ago, the Hongkong Tramways Ltd., the China Motor Bus Co., Ltd., the Hongkong Electric Co., Ltd. the Hong Kong Telephone Co. Ltd. and the 'Star' Ferry Co., Ltd. All these companies provide, in addition, welfare centres attached to the housing schemes. A number of firms provide accommodation of the dormitory type, and in such cases canteens are also provided which serve free or subsidized food. In eleven cases dormitory