In the past few months, a number of serious fatal industrial accidents have happened in Hong Kong. In fact, the number of industrial and occupational accidents has remained at a high level in recent years. The government is concerned about this and is considering raising the penalties of occupational safety and health offences to enhance protection for employees and achieve a greater deterrent effect.
In this webinar, we will discuss the general duties of employers and contractors to ensure safety and health of workers under the Factories and Industrial Undertakings Ordinance (Cap. 59) and the Occupational Safety and Health Ordinance (Cap.509), and will discuss what employers should do if industrial accidents happen.
Areas we will cover include:
Proposed increase in penalties for occupational safety and health violations;
Statutory duties to ensure safety and health of employees;
How to deal with investigations by the Labour Department; and
Prosecution and prevention.
Given the recent significant increase of locally transmitted infections of COVID-19, we will also discuss in our webinar the possible impacts if employees contract COVID-19 at work.
The presentation will be concluded by a Q&A session.