XN000022-1997-02-18 — Page 11

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Site safety urged after Lunar New Year holidays

The Labour Department today (Tuesday) urged contractors and construction site management staff to be more vigilant and take special safety precautions at their construction sites after the long Lunar New Year holidays.

Chief Factory Inspector (Operations), Mr Tse Ming-sing, said that site conditions might have been changed after long holidays, especially because of the rainy weather in the past two weeks. Safety alertness of both the site management and workers might also have diminished.

"Site management and workers should take precautionary measures to ensure safety and health at work before resuming construction activities," Mr Tse said.

"In particular, all scaffolds, working platforms, lifting appliances and excavations should be inspected by competent persons to ensure that they are in safe conditions before putting them into use again.

"Workers should also be fully advised and instructed to follow safety precautions on working at height and other hazardous situations."

To prevent accidents from occurring, Mr Tse urged contractors to exercise more vigilant control of their sites to make sure that the sites were still safe places of work after long holidays.

Under the Factories and Industrial Undertakings Ordinance, contractors are required to provide and maintain a safe system of work as well as to provide instruction, supervision and training to their workers. They are liable to a maximum fine of $200,000 and imprisonment for six months for non-compliance.

Workers who fail to take reasonable care of themselves and others will face a maximum fine of $50,000 and six months' imprisonment.

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