Following is a speech (translation) by the Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works, Dr Sarah Liao, on the resumption of the Second Reading Debate of the Construction Workers Registration Bill at Legislative Council meeting today (July 2):
Madam President,
First of all, I would like to thank the Chairman and Members of the Bills Committee for their remarks.
We always believe that the employment of construction workers with the required skill levels is a critical element in ensuring the quality of construction works. In this respect, the Government has since 1995 specified firstly in the construction contracts of the Housing Department and subsequently in public works contracts that, for certain trades, the contractors should employ a specified percentage of qualified workers. At present, only the workers in a few construction-related trades are required by law to be registered or licensed before they can perform the specified tasks. Other construction workers are not subject to statutory regulation. One of the key objectives of the proposed Construction Workers Registration System is to ensure the quality of construction workers through assessment of the skill levels of all construction workers by an objective registration mechanism.
Another objective of the proposed registration system is to ensure the availability of accurate data on the number of construction workers, their respective trades, skill levels and age distribution etc. The data will be useful not only to the relevant training institutions in deciding the intake and scope of training programmes, but also to the Government in evaluating the demand and supply of labour in the construction industry and formulating relevant policies in future.
Apart from these two objectives, the implementation of the registration system will also bring many other benefits. Firstly, the proposed legislation can raise the status of workers by properly recognising their professional skills. Secondly, the registration system can foster a quality culture in the construction industry by mapping out a clear career path along a three-tier model, namely, registered skilled worker, registered semi-skilled worker and registered general worker, thereby motivating the workers to aim for higher skill levels, thus higher status and more income. Thirdly, the smart registration card embedded with a computer chip to be issued to every registered construction worker can, to a certain extent, help combat the hiring of illegal workers on construction sites since the registration status of a worker entering or leaving a construction site will be verified by a card reading system. In addition, the system can be used by contractors to check the attendance of their workers and help reduce disputes over wages and insurance between the contractors and the workers.
The Bills Committee started scrutinising this Bill in June 2003 and completed its work in May 2004, meeting 12 times in total during the period. When scrutinising the Bill, the Bills Committee carefully examined the provisions of the Bill and gave a lot of positive and invaluable advice both on the content in general and specific provisions of the Bill. I am pleased that the implementation of the Construction Workers Registration Scheme has been accepted and supported by the Bills Committee. I would like to thank once again for your support.
The provisions governing the transitional arrangement for the registration of "senior workers" were most controversial during the deliberations. Some members have already given a detailed account of their arguments, I do not intend to repeat them here. I just wish to say that I hope members would trust that the administration is sincere in consulting all relevant parties, and we will try to proactively come up with options supported by all parties. We always want to get a consensus among all relevant parties.
After repeated discussions with the industry, we have at last come up with an option acceptable to all parties, from trade associations to workers unions. Under the latest proposed provisional registration arrangement, workers with no less than 6 years of experience will be allowed to register as registered skilled workers (provisional). They can attain the status of registered skilled workers in their own trades by either passing a skill test or attending and completing a trade-specific training course, within three years.
The requisite training for registered skilled workers (provisional) will be in the form of condensed courses tailor-made for individual trades and will highlight the common weaknesses observed in the skill tests. We will seriously consider Members' proposal that the training courses should be kept short and the fees kept low as far as possible. A working group with broad representation will be set up to take forward the proposal. Since the proposed amendment has passed through the Bills Committee, I will move the amendment and explain it in detail later.
The Bills Committee has made a number of suggestions about the Bill to refine the proposed registration system and I will propose the necessary amendments later. One of the amendments relates to the provisions in Part 3 governing the detailed arrangements for the establishment of the Registration Authority and its committees. In view of the Bills Committee's concern that the appeal mechanism may be abused by the employers, we agree to delete the relevant provisions. As advised by the Commissioner of Police, the Hong Kong Police Force will not take enforcement action specifically under the Bill. We therefore propose to add a provision to empower the Registration Authority to institute prosecution and carry out investigation, if necessary, in respect of an offence under the Bill. In addition, with the passage of the Construction Industry Levy (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill 2003, Part 4 and other relevant provisions of the Bill need to be amended accordingly. I will give a detailed account of each of these amendments when they are proposed later.
Upon the enactment of the Bill, we will, first of all, establish the Construction Workers Registration Authority and its committees, appoint the Registrar and start imposing the levy on construction operations so that the preparatory work for registration can proceed as soon as possible. It is expected that the preparation will take about one year and registration of construction workers will begin by the end of 2005.
In conclusion, the proposed registration system can foster a quality culture in the construction industry, improve the quality of construction works and promote the healthy development of the local construction industry. In the drafting process, we have ensured that construction workers can register according to the existing categories of trades and skill levels in the industry and that, the registration or renewal fees are kept to a minimum so as to alleviate the burden on construction workers. More importantly, the implementation of this system will not render any existing workers out of work.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the organisations and individuals who have given their views on the Bill. I would also like to express my gratitude to the Department of Justice and the Legislative Council Secretariat for their dedicated efforts in the drafting process.
Madam President, with a view to implementing the Construction Workers Registration System at an early date, I hope Honourable Members will support the Bill and the amendments which I will move at the Committee Stage.
Thank you, Madam President.
Ends/Friday, July 2, 2004
NNNN