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TopImproving Hong Kong’S Construction Safety
The European Union (2010) reported that the construction industry remains one of the most vulnerable sectors for accidents. There are many different tools to improve OSH including a combination of mandatory and voluntary measures. Ju (2014) listed the tools to include a mix of prescriptive, performance-based and general duties legislation or administrative measures. The OSH issues in Hong Kong are multi-folded and there are different approaches to manage site safety.
Traditionally, the approach was to impose legal controls following occurring of serious accidents, which is or often referred as “command and control” (Zhou, Irizarry, & Li, 2013). More recently, use of risk assessment (RA) is becoming more widespread and evident in human safety, security, environmental protection, product quality, planning and change management processes. This led to the publication of an international standard, the ISO31000 series, with a cycle loop similar to BS8800 involving “mandate and commitment”, “design of framework for managing risks”, “implementation of risk management”, “monitoring and review” and “continual improvement” (International Organization for Standardization, 2009). Many of Hong Kong’s legislation or management practices refer to the process of risk management and RA, suggesting that combining RA and other safety initiatives will help improve OSH performances and lower accident injuries (European Union, 2010; Labour Department, 2014).