Contractor fined for violation of safety legislation
A contractor (the defendant) was fined $90,000 at the Kwun Tong Magistrates' Courts today (November 8) for violations of the Construction Sites (Safety) Regulations. The prosecutions were launched by the Labour Department (LD).
The case involved a fatal accident that occurred on May 7, 2022, during the maintenance work of a residential unit in Jordan, Kowloon. A scaffolder, while preparing a truss-out scaffold erection on an external wall, fell to the ground and died.
Since the summonses could not be served to the defendant successfully, and the defendant had been absent from previous hearings, the court upon the LD's application issued warrants for arresting the defendant. The defendant was then arrested and brought to court by the Police for the case hearings.
The LD adopts a zero-tolerance attitude towards unsafe working-at-height activities and will spare no effort to bring duty-holders who defy the law to justice.
Moreover, the revised Code of Practice for Bamboo Scaffolding Safety, which came into effect on October 19, enhances the safety requirements for truss-out scaffolding work. For details, please refer to the LD's press release issued on October 18.
Meeting attendance of members of District Councils in 2024
The Home Affairs Department (HAD) made the following clarifications today (January 2) regarding certain media reports on the meeting attendance of the current-term members of the District Councils (DCs) in 2024:
(1) The current-term DC members were diligent in their work, with over 98 per cent of 470 members having attended all DC meetings or were only absent with the DC's consent; over 90 per cent having attended all committee/working group meetings or were only absent with the DC's consent. Aside from attending DC meetings, each DC member on average attended 28 committee/working group meetings;
(2) all DC members fulfilled the requirement under the Performance Monitoring Guidelines for Members of the DCs (the Guidelines), i.e. attendance rate of not lower than 80 per cent and no DC members were in violation of the requirement; certain reports were incorrect in stating that some DC members were in violation of the Guidelines due to their absence at meetings since absence at an individual meeting was not a violation in itself; and
(3) for the purpose of calculating attendance, the Guidelines stipulate certain reasons for absence that would be consented by the DCs, including sickness and attendance at another meeting or an activity on behalf of the DCs etc. If a DC member were absent from meetings due to the aforementioned reasons with the DC's consent, the absence would not affect his/her attendance rate. If a DC member were absent from meetings due to other reasons (i.e. personal matters), the absence would be counted towards his/her attendance rate.
The HAD hoped that media outlets and members of the public would have an accurate understanding of DC members' attendance situation at meetings. The current-term DC members' attendance rate at meetings was the highest amongst all previous terms, which fully demonstrated DC members' efforts and work in improving governance at the district level.
