Safety & Health

Overview

The University is committed to ensuring the safety and health of all its students, employees and visitors. In pursuit of this goal, the University promotes international standards of safety, health, radiation protection, and fire precautions.

HKU Safety and Health Policy under Safety Office homepage

As a service department, the Estates Office has significant safety and health responsibilities for the University:

1. Maintaining all University buildings, their services, University grounds, and all access and egress in a safe and sound condition;
2. Ensuring that his own staff work with due care and attention not only for their own safety but also for the safety and health of others who may be affected by their work;
3. Employing competent contractors and to supervise them so that they do not jeopardize the safety and health of University staff, students or visitors;
4. Ensuring that in all new projects and refurbishment works adequate attention is given in the design to ensure that the resulting environment is free of hazards to the safety and health of the occupants; and
5. Keeping the Safety Office updated on all new projects so that safety is incorporated at the planning stage.

Please click HERE for further information for EO Staff.

Safety & Health Management

To ensure the compliance with the Safety and Health Policy of the University and the practices established by the Committee on Health, Safety and Well-Being, the Estates Office works closely with the Safety Office in overseeing the management of risks to safety and health at the University.

The works performed by the Estates Office involves a variety of activities related to construction and facility management that may give rise to potential safety risks. In pursuit to the goal set by the University, the Estates Office is committed to develop, implement and maintain a safety and health management system in order to ensure the safety and health of all its students, employees and visitors. The safety and health management system developed also provides guidance for protection of its workforce, including workers engaged by the contractors working within the University premises, aiming at:

• Establish and implement a Safety and Health Management System with continuous improvement.
• Develop safety and health strategies and policies through the establishment of a Safety Committee and a Safety Working Group, including preparation of safety procedures, work instructions, safety rules and risk assessment.
• Promulgate the latest relevant legislations and requirements on safety and health.
• Promote and raise staff awareness on safety and health issues; organize the dissemination of safety-related information and training materials.
• Maintain safety and health management record.

Safety Management Manual

It is imperative that all personnel involved in project execution and facility management should play their respective roles towards providing and maintaining a safe and healthy working environment. They are required to have a high degree of safety awareness as well as to take reasonable care for the safety of themselves and others who may be affected by their acts or omissions at work.

With assistance of the Safety Office, the Estates Office has published a Safety Management Manual for staff use. The purpose of the Manual is to provide guidelines and reference to the staff of Estates Office regarding work safety and health.

It covers safety policies and procedures, and topics on safety and health management structure, training, job hazard control and elimination, accident investigation and emergency plan.

Safety Committee & Working Group

A Safety Committee has been set up within the Estates Office comprising representatives from different levels of staff, with guidance provided by the Safety Office in establishing the safety and health policies, works instructions, safety rules and miscellaneous safety-related issues.

A Safety Working Group under the Safety Committee is tasked to draft, discuss and prepare safety-related documents for the Safety Committee to consider and seek agreement internally before implementation.

Safety Representatives & Fire Wardens

Safety representatives have been assigned to assist the Director of Estates in fulfilling the safety responsibilities, details accessible at link

Besides, fire wardens have been appointed at various places of work to take appropriate action as laid down by the Safety Office in the event of fire alarm, details accessible at link

From time to time, the Safety Office will be notified to update the lists of safety representatives and fire wardens for Estates Office that are kept centrally under their website.

Further Information

HKU Safety Office

Further information on safety matters such as biosafety, chemicals and wastes, construction safety, environmental hygiene, fire, laboratory safety, radiation, and safety related resources are available at the homepage of Safety Office

Labour Department, HKSAR

Some of the publications by Labour Department relevant to the construction industry and facility management can be found at the homepage of Labour Department