It may look like art, but working on bamboo 30 floors up is a deadly business
Two workers plunged to their deaths from bamboo scaffolding amid heavy rain and strong wind last week. Both men left families - young wives and little children.
Sung Yiu-keung was working more than 30 storeys above the ground on wet scaffolding, in a rainstorm, on Monday. One year ago, his boss fell from scaffolding and died. Sung had told his wife of several close calls in which he had nearly fallen. Even so, he survived nine years as a registered bamboo scaffolder.
His luck finally ran out at a work site in Pok Fu Lam. He left behind his wife, Ng Lai-yee, 29, and two children aged five and three.
Some consider the erection of bamboo scaffolding to be a Hong Kong construction art form - but it's also a death trap for many workers. In the 11 years to 2007, 149 workers were taken from their families in fatal falls. More than half of those who died fell from bamboo scaffolding and working platforms.
A monthly breakdown of construction accidents shows that more than half of them happened in summer. No official tally exists of fatal falls from a height during the summer, but industrial safety experts say the number is relatively high because of the rain and storms.
Chan Kam-hong, head of the Association for the Rights of Industrial Accident Victims, said: 'It is very dangerous to work on scaffolding owing to the small size of the work platform and the height. It is even more life-threatening to work in rain because it's slippery. Safety belts need a fixed anchor, but that's not possible in most construction work since workers aren't allowed to drill the anchor into the wall of a building.'
According to Mrs Sung, her husband was highly safety-conscious. 'He was always aware of his safety during work, but he still had to work in rain and storms when asked to do so.
'Bosses always want to have the construction finished as soon as possible to avoid overtime payments,' she said, meaning employers are reluctant to call a halt to work during bad weather.
'Falling from height' has been the No1 killer in Hong Kong's construction industry for many years, according to a survey conducted by the Labour Department in 2007. The survey found that nearly 8,000 workers were injured in falls from a height between 1998 to 2007, of whom 149 died.
There is no legislation governing work arrangements for employees when a typhoon or rainstorm warning signal is in effect. The Labour Department lets employers make their own arrangements. It recommends that employers ask only essential staff to report for duty when a No8 typhoon warning or stronger signal, or a black rainstorm warning, is in force.
Mr Chan said legislation was needed to prevent employers demanding employees work outdoors in rainy and stormy conditions. 'Weather conditions can now be predicted accurately by the Observatory,' he said. 'Why is there no law to state clearly that workers should not work on scaffolding during certain rainy or stormy conditions? These fatal accidents were not single cases: people have died in similar accidents from time to time.'
Some property management companies have started adopting measures to prevent similar tragedies from happening again, according to an experienced occupational safety consultant in the construction business. '[These firms] have already said that no outdoor scaffolding work is allowed under certain wind speeds or while it is raining,' said Daniel Yeung Yiu-ming, director of Safety Consultant, who has been with the profession for over 25 years. 'I don't see any reason why the government could not put this practice into legislation.'
Last week's second victim, Mok Siu-chung, 27, fell to his death when he climbed out the eighth floor of Yuet Wah House, in Kwun Tong, to remove scaffolding while Severe Tropical Storm Goni approached the city last Tuesday.
In mid-June, two maintenance workers feared for their lives when 70km/h winds hit North Point and swung their gondola platform in a wild ride lasting 20 minutes, 12 storeys above the ground.
Both Mr Yeung and Mr Chan said the Labour Department should release the results of investigations into fatal work accidents to let both workers and employers learn from them.
'We are not going to embarrass the Labour Department with the report, but we want to know how to avoid similar fatal accidents happening again and again,' said Mr Chan.
As for Mrs Sung, her husband was the family's main breadwinner and had been earning about HK$700 a day. She is still too distraught to think about her future, saying only: 'I will think about this after my husband's funeral.'
Decade of death
From 1998 to 2007, some 7,741 people fell from a height in industrial accidents, according to the Labour Department
Of these, the number who died is: 149
They accounted for this percentage of fatal accidents at work: 63.1%
