The Labour Department introduced the “Prevention of Heatstroke at Work Guide” and the yellow, red, and black three-level “work heat warning” in May last year, reminding employers and employees to take appropriate measures to prevent heatstroke while working in hot weather or high-temperature environments. However, the measures have been criticized, such as issuing warnings three times within five hours. After nearly a year of implementation, the Labour Department plans to revise the “guidelines” to avoid the situation of last year’s warnings “popping in and out”.
The Labour Department plans to update the guidelines this May, including linking the “work heat warning” with the “extreme hot weather warning” and adjusting the technical parameters for canceling work heat warnings. The cancellation of work heat warnings will only be decided when there is a downward trend in the heat index in the past hour.
Deputy Director of the Labour Department (Occupational Safety and Health) Fung Ho-yin explained that originally, the plan was to review the guidelines two years after their introduction. However, due to widespread feedback from the industry last summer, a comprehensive review was carried out after last summer, updating based on various opinions, with the aim of providing clearer guidance to the industry.
Last year, the Labour Department issued yellow work heat warnings three times within five hours, and there were criticisms that the warnings “popped in and out” in a short period, causing confusion among employers and workers. Fung Ho-yin responded that with technical parameter adjustments, similar situations would not occur again. He also mentioned that whenever the Observatory issues an “extreme hot weather warning”, the yellow “work heat warning” will take immediate effect.
Furthermore, Occupational Health Consultant Doctor Wan Yuen-kwong of the Labour Department stated that when the “work heat warning” is in effect, it will be maintained for at least an hour each time. Since last July, the government has been using trends in monitoring the heat index for the past half-hour to determine whether the warning should continue to be in effect. In this update, the observation will change to the past hour’s heat index, and the warning will only be considered for cancellation when a stable downward trend is observed, to avoid warnings “popping in and out”.
Fung Ho-yin continued by saying that the Labour Department has been in contact with various industries and is encouraging each industry to develop its own practical guidelines. For example, the property management industry will be launching related guidelines within the next month, and the cleaning industry is also under discussion. The Labour Department will continue to collaborate with the Occupational Safety and Health Council to promote equipment for preventing heatstroke to the industry at more favorable prices.
In addition, the government’s pilot program for the rehabilitation of injured workers, launched in September 2022, had 717 participants as of the end of February this year, with 75% already recovered, but only 267 had returned to work. Dr. Wan Yuen-kwong explained that some recovered individuals might still be searching for jobs or wanting to rest for a while.
Starting on May 9 this year, the program will expand to the “food and beverage industry” and the “transportation and logistics industry”. Employees in these two industries who have suffered work-related injuries on or after April 1 this year will be eligible to participate in the program.
Dr. Wan Yuen-kwong stated that the program targets individuals who have been injured at work leading to musculoskeletal injuries, or have developed occupational diseases related to musculoskeletal issues as stipulated in the “Employees’ Compensation Ordinance”, or have not returned to work after 6 weeks of work injury, or are expected to be unable to return to work within 6 weeks. According to official data, the number of workers in the “food and beverage industry” and “transportation and logistics industry” experiencing the above situations is second only to the construction industry. He believes that after the program expansion, workers in need in these two industries will actively participate in the program.