'Rushing culture must stop at construction sites'

Industry representatives are calling for urgent reform of safety management, tendering policies and safety education, warning that the construction sector's "rushing culture" is coming at the cost of human lives.

Speaking on a radio programme, Chau Sze-kit, chairman of the Hong Kong Construction Industry Employees General Union, said Hong Kong has already recorded 61 serious industrial accidents this year.

Of these, 26 occurred in the construction industry and 13 involved fatalities.

Five deaths were reported in June alone, including a worker who died on Monday after being trapped beneath an overturned excavator at a site in Ho Man Tin.

Chau pointed to two deep-rooted structural problems: the industry-wide practice of awarding contracts to the lowest bidder and the severe lack of buffer time in project schedules.

"When the price is low, naturally there are fewer resources. I always say that you end up sacrificing either quality or safety," he said.

"Under such circumstances, there is also the problem that many projects don't have enough construction time – there's no allowance for rainy days – which leads to a culture of rushing.

"When frontline management faces deadlines and potential penalties, they may choose to take shortcuts on some safety procedures. This is urgent and needs to be resolved in order to alleviate our current severe industrial accident situation."

Lawrence Ng, permanent honorary president of the Hong Kong Construction Sub-Contractors Association, agreed that while employers bear significant responsibility, the human factor cannot be overlooked.

He stressed that safety is a shared duty across clients, consultants, main contractors, subcontractors, supervisors and workers alike.

Ng pointed to a Construction Industry Council report from April last year, which surveyed more than 3,000 workers and frontline staff.

The results showed that about seven percent of workers and supervisors had virtually no safety awareness.

"Their response is 'I know it's dangerous, but I still have to do it'," Ng said.

"Think about it – on average, we have over 100,000 workers on site daily. Seven percent means more than 10,000 people are engaging in very unsafe behaviour every day.

"I'm not blaming them, but they are endangering their own lives. Every death represents the destruction of a family. We really don't want to see that."

He stressed that the culture of rushing must be corrected – because "nothing is more important than life itself".

Fay Siu, chief executive of the Association for the Rights of Industrial Accident Victims, added that the impact of industrial accidents extends far beyond the individual.

She said families are torn apart, and children may be left devastated, with long-term consequences for their emotional well-being and education.

Edited by Robert Kemp ...