Coronavirus: enough data not available to enlist Covid-19 as an occupational disease, Hong Kong labour minister says, as unionists accuse government of failing to protect workers
- Law Chi-kwong says most coronavirus cases in Hong Kong resulted from community infections rather than work
- But trade unionists say workers in various sectors are at high risk and can only be protected if Covid-19 is listed as an occupational disease
Hong Kong’s labour minister said on Sunday enough data was not available to support the listing of Covid-19 as an occupational disease, drawing criticism from unionists who accused the government of failing to protect workers facing high risks of infections.
Secretary for Labour and Welfare Law Chi-kwong made the remarks on his blog on Sunday, when four unions and 90 organisations urged the government to list Covid-19 as an occupational disease, saying there were more than 70 suspected work-related infections in the city.
Law said the government had been looking at the issue since late January and considered factors listed by the International Labour Organisation, including whether there was a causal relationship between the occupation and the disease and whether the risk of getting infected among any group of workers was higher than the general public.
When diseases transmit widely in the community, we cannot assume that medical staff are infected during work
“According to the criteria of the International Labour Organisation, we don’t have sufficient data,” Law said.
He said among 1,024 confirmed coronavirus cases in Hong Kong by Saturday, most cases resulted from community infections rather than work.
“Hong Kong has so far recorded one case of a medical employee who might have been infected during work, but the actual transmission channel has not been confirmed yet.
“When diseases transmit widely in the community, we cannot assume that medical staff are infected during work. This is an important factor to consider while listing an infectious disease as occupational disease,” he said.
Hong Kong records two new coronavirus cases, taking city’s total to 1,025
While unionists cited how the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) was included in the list of occupational diseases for medical and related industries in Hong Kong two years after its outbreak in 2003, Law said health workers had accounted for 22 per cent of all the 1,755 Sars infections in the city.
He said the government was closely monitoring the medical and epidemiological data of Covid-19 and would follow up in due course.
But unionists felt the government should not drag its feet on the issue.
The Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions, the Association for the Rights of Industrial Accident Victims, the Hospital Authority Workers General Union and the HA Employees Alliance initiated a joint signature campaign with the support of 90 organisations urging the government to amend the legislation immediately covering all occupations that could be at risk.
Siu Sin-man, director of the Association for the Rights of Industrial Accident Victims, said a study conducted by them on the confirmed cases released by the government found more than 70 infections were suspected to be related to work.
These included workers having direct contact with infected patients, such as domestic helpers and drivers, workers visiting disease-stricken regions such as flight attendants, workers who have infected colleagues, and workers exposing themselves to large crowds such as cleaners and security guards.
No matter what kind of occupations you are in, if you contact people, you could get infected
“Our analysis found that no matter what kind of occupations you are in, if you contact people, you could get infected. It’s a very dangerous disease,” Siu said.
“Workers can only be protected if the disease is listed as an occupational disease.”
She added that countries such as Belgium, Italy and South Africa had recognised Covid-19 as an occupational disease to cover mainly medical staff, while Germany, Canada and Malaysia had amended legislation to cover all kinds of workers.
Carol Ng Man-yee, chairwoman of the Confederation of Trade Unions, said the Labour Department revealed in a reply to a lawmaker that it had received reports from employers in only 12 of the 75 suspected cases, with 10 of these cases still having disputes on whether the bosses should be held responsible.
“Without the legislative amendment to recognise Covid-19 as an occupational disease, neither employers nor employees would clearly know how much responsibility should the management take when employees are infected during work,” Ng said.
Siu added that workers could still file their compensation claims under another section of the Employees’ Compensation Ordinance which covers accidents during work, but for that the employees would need to argue their cases and it could take years to get the results.
She said the association had not received any requests of help from infected workers, but she said that might be because they were not aware of their rights for compensation or were still under treatment. She called on the infected workers to contact the association for claims regarding their rights.
She said the inclusion of Sars as an occupational disease in 2005 came too late to cover medical workers infected during the outbreak in 2003.
