XN000022-1996-12-04 — Page 8

6.

In the 1995 Consultation Paper on the Review of Industrial Safety in Hong Kong, we included the recommendation of a tripartite Ad Hoc Committee under the Labour Advisory Board that safety and health legislation should be extended to cover all employees. It was recommended that new legislation should be enacted under which different regulations, to be implemented in stages, would set out specific standards for the working environment in general and regulate certain hazardous processes, equipment and substances in particular under the following six broad categories:

(a) safety, health and welfare of the workplace (including ventilation, lighting, fire precautions, lavatory, first-aid, drinking water, etc.); manual handling operations;

(b)

(c) personal protective equipment at work;

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(d)

(e)

(f)

dangerous substances and their labelling, handling, storage, etc.;

health and safety aspects of work in the use of visual display equipment; and

use of machinery and equipment.

This recommendation has received wide support during the public consultation period.

The Occupational Safety and Health Bill is the result of the recommendation to extend protection to the non-industrial employees. It will apply to all workplaces, with the following exceptions:

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

persons employed in land, sea and air transport, which are already protected by other legislation such as the Road Traffic Ordinance, the Merchant Shipping Ordinance and the Civil Aviation Ordinance; persons employed in maritime operations, which are regulated by the Merchant Shipping (Safety) Ordinance;

persons employed in domestic services, as it is not intended to intrude into the private life of individual household; and

self-employed persons,

relationship.

since there is no employer/employee