XN000022-1997-01-07 — Page 26

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Contractor fined for safety offences

The Labour Department today (Tuesday) reminded building contractors to ensure that their construction sites are safe, otherwise they are liable to heavy fines or imprisonment.

Chevalier Construction (HK) Ltd, the principal contractor of a construction site at Lung Poon Street, Diamond Hill, Kowloon was recently fined a total of $154,000 at San Po Kong Magistracy for committing eight offences under the industrial safety regulations.

Of which, a maximum penalty of $50,000 was ordered on the charge for failing to provide safety helmets for workers working on the site, breaching regulation 48(1)(b) of the Construction Sites (Safety) Regulations.

The contractor was charged for failing to fence a cable duct opening; failing to provide safety helmet; failing to fence working platform; failing to provide suitable scaffold; failing to provide eye protector; failing to provide a riving knife for a circular saw; failing to provide a guard for the saw blade of a circular saw and failing to provide electrical apparatus of proper construction.

A spokesman for the department said today that these irregularities were found by the factory inspectors during a special task force exercise in July last year to inspect active sites and sites with unsatisfactory safety records.

Follow-up inspection was conducted in December last year in which workers were still found without safety helmets.

The spokesman reminded building contractors that they were required by law to provide a safe system of work, safety training and instructions and suitable personal protective equipment such as safety helmets for the workers.

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