XN000022-1995-11-22 — Page 21

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(b) the working environment of office workers and employees in the service industry will be covered by the Occupational Safety Bill which is being drafted; what is the progress in the drafting of the bill, when will the public be consulted and when will the bill be presented to this Council for scrutiny; and

(c) consideration has been given to bringing office workers suffering from certain common occupational diseases (such as waist and back pain, and ailments of vision and hands) under the protection of the law, so that they will be eligible for compensation?

Reply:

Mr President.

Regarding part (a) of the question, the Government has not conducted any specific surveys on occupational safety in non-industrial undertakings. However, the Labour Department keeps statistics on accidents reported by employers under the Employees' Compensation Ordinance for both industrial and non-industrial sectors. There were 20,250 accidents in non-industrial establishments in 1992, 20,865 in 1993 and 20,252 in 1994. The accident rate per 1,000 employees in the non-industrial sectors was 13.63 in 1992, 13.35 in 1993 and 11.96 in 1994. This is much lower than the accident rate in the industrial sector, where the comparable figures were 57.23 in 1992, 52.55 in 1993 and 52.93 in 1994.

The information provided under the current reporting form do not contain sufficient details to enable us to break down these accidents by cause. Steps are being taken to improve the reporting form by requiring employers to state more clearly the causes of accidents.

The number of accidents in non-industrial undertakings by type of occupation and the accident rates for 1992 to 1994 are provided in the Appendix to the written version of my reply.