Headline: Rights that you have as an employee that you may have ignored (Assignment of Reporting and Writing, 7-12-2023)

Aiming to shine a spotlight on workplace infections and the legally protected rights of employees, the Labour Department held a talk at the Occupational Safety and Training Center on 24th October.

The goal of the Occupational Safety and Health Centre is to promote occupational health through providing education and information. According to the Labour Department, employees who get injured during work can receive treatment and assessment at Occupational Health Clinics located in Kwun Tong and Fanling. Employees experiencing violations of rights or working in improper conditions can report their employers through phone and QR code online forms.

“The personal information of the whistleblower will be kept strictly confidential.” Said Wong Siu Zing, the guest speaker. She did not consent to an interview.

The risk of workplace infection is not limited to healthcare workers but other industries as well. For example, livestock industry workers and slaughterhouse workers also face the risk of infection in their workplace according to the Occupational Safety and Health Centre. Workplace infection is only a small subset under the large category of occupational disease and injuries, which can be related to every worker considering its definition.

“For occupational injuries, according to the Employees’ Compensation Ordinance, if an employee sustains injury or death due to an accident arising out of and in the course of employment, the employer is generally responsible for compensation under this ordinance,” May W S CHAN, Commissioner for Labour gave the definition of occupational injuries and disease in written correspondence. “For occupational diseases, Employees’ Compensation Ordinance had listed out diseases that are recognized as occupational diseases. For those diseases, employees can receive compensation just like occupational injuries. Even for diseases that are not included in Employees’ Compensation Ordinance, the employees can pursue compensation after proven that the diseases are caused by their job.

According to The Labour Department, the statistics of occupational injuries and diseases remain relatively stable these years. From 2018 to 2022, about 30000 cases of occupational injuries a year and around 400 confirmed cases of occupational diseases and gas poisoning. The cases of occupational injuries show a positive correlation with the population in the industry. Take 2022 as an example, inside of 32026 cases 30% are from public administration and social and personal services, 15% came from professional and business services, and 14% came from accommodation and food services. While there were very few cases came from the first industries such as agriculture, forestry, and fishing (13 cases in 2022).

There is reason for some industries to have proportion of occupational injuries than others, despite of workforce size. Since employers from different industries seem to have differences in awareness of occupational health and workers’ legally protected rights.

“Since we carefully follow the rules, often being checked by nurses who are in charge of infection control, accidents rarely happen.” An audience who works as a patient care assistant answered when asked about how often workplace infection accidents happen in her workplace.

“Infection often happens during the product quality control process,” another audience working in the restaurant industry gave a different response to the same question, “they know there are problems, but they don’t care. I slipped during work and hurt my wrist more than one year ago, I have not received any compensation so far.”

Employees with occupational injuries and diseases often face difficulties in diagnosing their injuries and diseases, as well as proving them are occupational.

“My back pain was caused by my occupation before, I needed to walk up and down the stairs with heavy documents at that time. I don’t do it now, so it definitely can’t be distinguished as occupational injuries now.” Said Wong Pui Yu, a patient of the Occupational Health Clinic in Fanling. administrative work, she is 57 years old and engaged in administrative work.

“I am not sure if my injuries are caused by the occupation, the clinic provided me medicines that I may not be able to get from other clinics and referred me to the physical therapist.” Lee Sau Ying said, she was also a patient. She is 60 this year, a Clerical staff suffering from finger, and wrist pain.

Even if your injuries and diseases cannot be reviewed as occupational, going to Occupational Health Clinics is still recommended, according to 李秀英, a 60-year-old clerical staff suffering from finger and wrist pain. She said, ““I am not sure if my injuries are caused by the occupation, the clinic provided me medicines that I may not be able to get from other clinics and referred me to the physical therapist.”

The civilization of a society is reflected in how it treats vulnerable groups. There were always more we could do to protect the right of workers.

Reflection:

This is the very first new story I wrote. I was aiming to do a social welfare topic. However, I found out that government employees are very unlikely to grant me an interview. I ended up interviewing only patients for this story. I made improvements on my other works based on this one, including choosing topics.