Companies urged to clean up act on heat-stress alerts

The Federation of Hong Kong and Kowloon Labour Unions on Monday urged companies to ensure cleaners are better informed to rest when a heat-warning alert is in force.

The Heat Stress at Work Warning system requires employers to provide people who work outdoors or in indoor environments without air-conditioning with hourly rest periods when an alert is in effect.

The three-tiered system is divided into amber, red and black to indicate the level of heat stress and requires longer breaks for workers based on the risks.

A survey of nearly 550 cleaners from May to July found seven percent had suffered heatstroke at work while 32 percent said they had not been notified when a warning was issued.

Federation chairman and lawmaker Lam Chun-sing said companies should establish a clear notification system and make use of technological means to remind workers to rest.

“Maybe the government can encourage employers to establish a notification mechanism or a system. If there is a Heat Stress at Work Warning, then the supervisor should notify their workers to rest immediately or as soon as possible,” he said.

“Through innovation and technologies, maybe employers can provide a sensor or smart watch for the worker so that they can use these technologies to notify their workers to rest immediately.”

The survey also found 40 percent of cleaners had not received basic heat-relief items such as water or towels from their employers and that 41 percent were only able to rest outdoors when a warning had been issued.

Lam pointed out that under a third of the city's 160 refuse collection points have indoor rest spaces.

“The government has stated that if they build new collection points or rebuild [existing] collection points, they will provide a space for the worker to rest,” he said.

"But I think the process is too slow. We hope that the government can improve the environment at existing refuse collection points.”

Lam also pointed out that only the amber warning has been in use since the Heat Stress at Work Warning system was introduced in 2023.

He urged the government to review if the threshold for the issuance of red or black warnings had been set too high.

Edited by Tony Sabine ...