ENG-1983 — Page 89

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EMPLOYMENT

conjunction with the Hong Kong Association of Careers Masters, six regional careers. conventions and took part in 44 other careers-oriented activities. It has produced 42 careers pamphlets and publishes a monthly careers newsletter for free distribution to secondary schools and youth organisations.

The service operates three careers information centres on Hong Kong Island, in Kowloon and in Tsuen Wan. Each centre provides a free advisory service and is equipped with a reference library with about 1 300 titles on careers and related subjects, as well as slides, video-cassette recordings and cassette recordings on employment and training opportunities. In 1983, some 31 680 students and young people visited the centres.

The Labour Department's 12th Annual Careers Exhibition was held at the City Hall in November. Altogether, 23 exhibitors from commerce, industry, the services and the government took part in the 10-day exhibition which attracted 104 000 visitors. The service also organised, with the Education Department, the first one-year part-time training course for 32 careers teachers to provide in-depth training on the theoretical and practical aspects of careers education.

Industrial Safety

The factory inspectorate of the Labour Department is responsible for enforcing the Factories and Industrial Undertakings Ordinance and its subsidiary regulations. These provide for the safety and health of workers in factories, on building and engineering construction sites and at other industrial undertakings. Advice and assistance is given to management on guarding dangerous machinery parts, adopting safe working practices and laying out new factories to achieve a better working environment. The inspectorate also investigates industrial accidents and other dangers.

The Factories and Industrial Undertakings (Amendment) Ordinance 1983 became effective in July. Apart from streamlining certain provisions, it empowers the Commis- sioner for Labour to hold a formal inquiry into an industrial accident, removes the requirement for factory registrations to be periodically renewed and makes clear that construction sites do not need to be registered under the ordinance. The Construction Sites (Safety) (Amendment) Regulations 1983 were approved by the Legislative Council in July and will come into operation on February 1, 1984. They will provide for the better protection of persons, particularly with regard to working at height. Specific requirements are laid down as to the safety of workplaces and the means of access and exit.

Preparation for forming the metal ware industry 'safety sub-committee was completed and it will meet early in 1984. This is the fifth tripartite, industry-based safety sub- committee to be formed under the Labour Advisory Board Committee on Industrial Safety and Accident Prevention. Sub-committees for the construction, textiles, ship building and ship repairing, and plastics industries were set up between 1980-2. These sub-committees bring together representatives of employers, workers and the Labour Department to promote work safety in various industries.

The Factory Inspectorate, with the Government Information Services, continued to expand its publicity programme for the promotion of industrial safety through extensive use of the media and other means. Safety Extravaganza, an audio-visual presentation on industrial safety first shown in Hong Kong in 1982, was staged in Tuen Mun in March as a joint activity with the local district board, with an extended version staged at the City Hall in May and at Chai Wan in November.

The Labour Advisory Board Committee on Industrial Safety and Accident Prevention held an industrial safety seminar for senior management in November and another for