The Lighthouse Q1 2022

MANAGING HEALTH AND SAFETY IN CHUN WO’S CONSTRUCTION SITES

As COVID-19 continues to ravage the Hong Kong real-estate sector, Chun Wo Construction Holdings Company Limited (Chun Wo), a contractor and construction engineering company founded in 1968, has finetuned its operation model to better protect the health and well-being of its staff while doing everything possible to maintain business as usual and minimise any negative impacts.

Elaborate protocols have been enforced at its construction sites during the pandemic period to safeguard employees’ health and safety. The vaccine pass arrangement is one such initiative, requiring staff and visitors to have received vaccination.

Compulsory testing, social distancing, health screening, use of personal protective equipment (PPE) and quarantine arrangements are also part of the standard operating procedures (SOP) to keep at the virus at bay.

“Whether there is a pandemic or not, employee health and wellbeing are at the heart of everything we do. This is especially so on our construction sites, where our people working there remain our most precious asset. The only difference is that now, with the evolving government guidelines and dealing with a risk that is relatively new to the construction industry, we must respond with greater speed and flexibility,” said Sr Lee Ka Lun, Stephen, Chairman of Chun Wo.

COMPREHENSIVE POLICY, SYSTEM AND PROCESSES

Occupational health and safety (OHS) is a top priority for Chun Wo, which has put in place a comprehensive mechanism, encompassing the Group’s OHS policy, system, handbook and operational processes, with the oversight needed to ensure they are dutifully adhered to, right down to the worksites. The top goal is to achieve zero workplace accident and health incident.

The OHS system developed by Chun Wo is a multifaceted one, consisting of 17 safety elements. In addition to the OHS Policy, the system also covers safety organisation, training, rules and regulations, committees, inspections, job hazard analysis, personal protective equipment, accident investigation, emergency preparedness, safety promotion, health assurance programme, process control, sub-contractor screening and selection, audit, document control and records management.

Other initiatives have also been implemented to uplift employee safety further. These include Chun Wo Safe Zone, comprised of 5 training zones to simulate the major causes of construction site accidents; a suspension and improvement notice system, where workers found to have performed unsafe behaviour on site will be suspended from work; and an audit bonus scheme to reward staff in projects with good safety audit scores.

In addition, protective gear and equipment, such as helmets, chin straps, goggles and safety harness, are mandatory for employees working on construction sites with a safety handbook published to inform them of the rules and regulations they must follow, while at a worksite.

There’s a good reason for Chun Wo to come up with such an overwhelming number of OHS guidelines, action plans and processes that everybody on the site must observe. Sr Lee said: “As one of the largest government contractors in Hong Kong, Chun Wo runs several public infrastructure projects simultaneously across the city.

This means that we need all the standard rules and regulations there are to cover every single OHS aspect and scenario. Equally important, they must be effectively executed in all our many worksites at any given time, to minimise workplace fatalities and injuries.”

“The Group has established a Safety Department to set targets, review accident rates, conduct site checking and run an internal safety audit system. The Internal Safety Audit will be conducted by independent Registered Safety Auditors, in compliance with Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series Standard (ISO 45001:2018 and Independent Safety Audit Scheme), with the aim of evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency of the system and ensuring its proper implementation to achieve the Group’s safety goals and targets,” he said.

Chun Wo is one of a handful of contractors holding five types of registration and qualification to work on public projects.

Some of the iconic large-scale infrastructure works it has involved or is undertaking include the Tseung Kwan O-Lam Tin Tunnel, Central-Wanchai Bypass; Liantang/Heung Yuen Wai Boundary infrastructural facilities; the Hong Kong- Zhuhai-Macao Bridge Passenger Clearance Building; the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link (Hong Kong Section): Trackwork and Overhead Line System; and the MTR Shatin to Central Link.

The company’s professional team is also capable of different kinds of building projects, including government buildings, schools and hospitals as well as office, residential, industrial complexes.

WORTHY INVESTMENTS IN WORK EFFICIENCY AND SAFETY

Over the past decade, Chun Wo has tapped into the power of new technological advances, building methodologies and innovative design approaches not just to increase construction ease and speed or reduce the cost and time incurred, but also to enhance occupational health and safety.

The Group has also invested in proprietary mobile applications to ensure construction employees remain safe and sound on the worksite. Citing a useful example, he said: “The FourS mobile app is an integrated digital platform we have developed to assist our frontline supervisory team in daily site inspection.”

When activated, it automatically generates the project name and default inspection categories that site supervisors are obliged to fill in as they follow a step-by-step inspection flow dictated by the app.

Safety issues can be reported directly from the mobile device, documented with photos and comments, and uploaded to our servers so that everyone is able to track, see or fix the problems areas in real time.

“With traditional pen-written inspection, the handwriting may be illegible and entries end up being vague. That’s why we created an app using a digital checklist and template to promote uniformity and precision to ensure our field supervisors capture the data and send it to the relevant parties for urgent notification and record,” he added. “

As one of the largest government contractors in Hong Kong, Chun Wo runs several public infrastructure projects simultaneously across the city. Whether there is a pandemic or not, employee health and wellbeing is at the heart of everything we do.

Sr Lee Ka Lun, Stephen Chairman of Chun Wo

Heftier investments made in construction approaches and technologies have also fetched valuable returns in worksite health and safety. One example is Design for Manufacture and Assembly (Df MA) design approach, which focuses on offsite pre-fabrication of Modular Integration Construction (MiC) flats and components, such as kitchen and toilet modules, for final assembly at the site. From an OHS perspective, the Df MA approach eliminates the risk of working at height as well as onsite slipping and tripping accidents.

Rapid Repairing Mortar Material (R²M²), a stainless-steel fiber reinforced mortar designed for repairing Reinforced Concrete (RC) slabs, is the outcome of an innovation project jointly developed by Chun Wo and a local university.

Not only is this a faster solution for repairing spalling concrete, an issue commonly seen with ageing buildings, R²M² also reduces the risk of falling objects and minimises air and noise pollution that workers are exposed to.

Another innovation that Chun Wo counts on to uplift workplace safety is robotics and Artificial Intelligence. Through deploying Silt Cleaning Robots, Internet of Things (IoT), smart sensing technology and a cloud-based tree movement monitoring system, the Group has made concerted efforts to minimise human involvement in hazardous construction activities, reduce workplace injuries and death and closely monitors danger zones.

By digitalization, the Group is transforming work sites into “smart sites”. Geospatial data from the sites is gathered and analysed to provide real-time monitoring of site conditions, including the safety behaviour of operators.

CLEAN OHS RECORD AND INDUSTRY AWARDS

Chun Wo’s consistent efforts to secure a clean OHS record have paid off in recent years. From 2016 to 2021, the accident incidence rate at its workplaces has dropped nearly 73%. Zero fatal accident was recorded from 2018 to the present.

Last year alone, several important industry awards were conferred to the Group, including the Hong Kong Construction Association Safety Awards, for its excellent OHS performance.

“As a conscientious employer, it is Chun Wo’s moral responsibility to protect our employees from fatalities and injuries at our sites. It will certainly boost their morale seeing how far we have gone to take care of their safety and wellbeing. Moreover, Chun Wo’s reputation in OHS will improve and everyone know we are a people-oriented company worth working for,” said Sr Lee.