Dealing with Ageing Workforce in the Hong Kong Construction Industry: an Initial Exploration

The workforce in the 21st century is ageing. There is increasingly larger proportion of workforce 50 years of age or older. This ageing situation is prevalent in the Hong Kong construction industry as about 41% of total registered construction workers in Hong Kong are 50-year-old or above as at 31 Aug 2018, and the failure of the industry to attract younger workers. These situations have collectively led to serious manpower shortage. Most construction workers are experiencing physically demanding works on a daily basis. Workers are also subjected to constant psychosocial pressures including the need to face stressful environmental conditions, long and sometimes irregular work hours, unpredictable workplaces and conditions, and dis-continual employment. In addition, the organisational and institutional arrangements in Hong Kong construction industry are less supportive in providing favourable working environment for older workers. Despite these misgivings, we know very little of the conditions older construction workers experience in Hong Kong construction industry. There is therefore a need to investigate such issues and propose possible intervention to improve the working conditions of our senior workers. With these objectives, in this paper, we first report the findings of a small scale survey on the care of older workers in Hong Kong construction industry, and second propose potential intervention by combining the findings of the survey and our industry observations of the practices implemented by progressive contracting companies in Hong Kong. In developing the intervention scheme, we draw from the approach of the emerging field of integrated health and safety protection and promotion. The scheme focuses on the relationships and causal pathways of the conditions of works to workers’ health and safety outcomes by taking into consideration the organisation and workforce characteristics. It is argued that the framework can potentially mitigate the risks associated with ageing workforce.