Macau’s Labor Affairs Bureau (DSAL) will publicly shame those in charge of construction sites that fail to meet safety standards by publishing “photographs and data of existing risks or insufficient security awareness” on its website.
The plan was revealed during a meeting this week with key stakeholders in Macau’s construction industry after an inspection blitz of 74 construction sites across Macau on the weekend resulted in 20 being ordered to stop work. Construction of Melco Resorts’ new Morpheus hotel tower at City of Dreams was also suspended on Friday after a man was killed by a falling beam, while SJM is still awaiting permission to pick up tools at Grand Lisboa Palace following a stop work order over a month ago.
The meeting, held on Monday, hosted a total of around 110 people including representatives of the Macau Construction Safety Association, the Macau Occupational Health and Safety Association and The Macau Institute of Engineers, as well as a number of security managers and company managers.
In a statement, DSAL said, “In order to enhance the focus and importance of the sector to the public, DSAL plans to publish photographs or data on the DSAL’s website on existing risks or insufficient security awareness during occupational health and safety inspections, to supervise jointly with the public about occupational health and safety work on construction sites.”
DSAL Director Wong Chi Hong said that any site found to have potential safety risks would be ordered to stop work until the contractor can provide a detailed report on the corrected work and DSAL has checked and approved a restart.
He added that the industry needed to learn its lessons and start conducting overall checks for occupational safety problems hiding on construction sites, promising that DSAL would continue to carry out occupational health and safety inspections at construction sites.
Monday’s meeting saw DSAL show photographs of the safety hazards it found during its weekend inspections before analyzing and discussing recommendations on construction safety and listening to the difficulties site managers face. The Bureau said it would continue to arrange meetings with the industry to improve Macau’s health and safety environment.
