Work Safety Ordinance [New Version], 5730-1970

In this Ordinance –

"fumes" – smoke, gas or vapour;

"authorised boiler inspector" or "authorised inspector", in respect of a particular Section – a person authorised in writing by the Chief Inspector to carry out examinations and tests as provided in that Section;

"building" –

"engineering construction" –

"owner", in respect of premises – a person who at that time receives rent or profits from the premises, whether in his own right or as agent or as trustee for another, or who would receive them if the premises were let;

"steam boiler" – a closed vessel in which steam is generated under pressure greater than atmospheric pressure for any purpose, including an economiser used for heating water supplied to such a vessel and a superheater used for heating steam;

"bodily injury" – including harm to health;

"premises let for power" – (Repealed)

"permissible working pressure", in respect of a pressure plant – the pressure not to be exceeded as set out in a certificate or report given in accordance with the prescribed provisions of Chapter III;

"quarry" – an excavation for the purpose of winning stone, including limestone, sandstone, calcareous sandstone or basalt of any kind, or for the purpose of winning slate, chert or other volcanic or metamorphic rock, quartz, marble, flint, chalk, gravel, sand, clay or gypsum, together with the structures, installations, equipment, machinery, railways, appliances, storage places and tips belonging to or used for the excavation;

"steam container" – a vessel, other than a steam pipe or steam coil, constructed with a permanent outlet to the atmosphere or to a space in which the pressure does not exceed atmospheric pressure, being a vessel through which steam passes at atmospheric pressure, or at a pressure close thereto, for the purpose of heating, boiling, drying, evaporating or a similar purpose;

"pressure plant" – a steam boiler, steam receiver or air receiver;

"machinery" – including a mechanical appliance and a transmission belt;

"transmission" – a shaft, wheel, drum, pulley, system of fast and loose pulleys, coupling, clutch, transmission belt and any other means by which the motion of a prime mover is transmitted to or received by a machine or appliance;

"prime mover" – a machine, engine or other appliance supplying mechanical power derived from steam, water, wind, electricity, the combustion of fuel or any other source;

"railway" – a railway used for the public conveyance of passengers or goods or for other traffic, including installations used in connection with the railway and for its purposes;

"employer" – including a body of persons, incorporated or unincorporated, and the legal representative of a deceased employer; in respect of a member of a registered cooperative society engaged in work carried out by that society, the society shall for the purposes of this Ordinance be regarded as the employer of the member and the member as an employee of the society, even though he receives his remuneration for work, in whole or in part, by way of participation in the profits or gross income of the society;

"lift" – an installation used for the movement of persons or goods between fixed levels, having a car or platform moving in a vertical or nearly vertical path the movement of which is restricted by a guide;

"inspector", "Chief Inspector" – a person appointed under the Work Inspection (Organisation) Law, 5714-1954, to be a labour inspector, deputy chief labour inspector or chief labour inspector, as the case may be, and "regional inspector", in respect of a particular factory – a person appointed under that Law to be a regional labour inspector for the region in which the factory is situated;

"conveniences" – urinals, water-closets, pit-closets, dry closets of any kind and similar conveniences;

"port" – whether natural or artificial, including a river mouth, navigable river, quay and other installations in or by which ships may find shelter, load or unload goods or embark or disembark passengers;

"prescribed" – prescribed by the Minister by Regulations;

"class or description", in respect of factories – including a description of a group of factories by reference to their location;

"continuous work" – work continuing without an interval of half an hour or more;

"worker" – including a self-employed worker;

"factory register" – the register maintained and kept in accordance with the provisions of section 198 or section 199;

"air receiver" – one of the following:

"steam receiver" – a vessel or plant used for containing steam at a pressure greater than atmospheric pressure, other than a steam boiler, steam container, steam pipe or steam coil and a part of a prime mover;

"maintain" – maintain in an efficient state, in efficient working order and in good repair, and, in a place intended for pedestrian use, in a state that prevents slipping;

"transmission belt" – including a band or rope used for driving machinery;

"process" – including the use of a locomotive;

"the Minister" – the Minister of Economy and Industry.

A factory is premises in or within the close or precincts of which persons are employed in manual labour in a process used for making any article or part of an article, altering, repairing, ornamenting, finishing, cleaning, washing, breaking up, demolishing or adapting for sale it, or connected therewith, and in which premises the following two conditions are fulfilled:

The following premises also, in which persons are employed in manual labour, are included in the definition of factory, even if they are not so included under the definition in section 2, and they are:

A line of rails or a branch thereof, used in connection with a factory and for its purposes and not forming part of a railway, shall be regarded as part of the factory; if they are used in connection with several factories occupied by different occupiers, they shall be regarded as a separate factory.

A place situated within the close or precincts of a factory and used only for a purpose that is not for the needs of the processes carried out in the factory shall not be regarded as part of the factory for the purposes of this Ordinance, but if from another aspect the place would constitute a factory it shall be regarded as a separate factory.

Premises are not excluded from the definition of factory solely because they are in the open air.

The provisions of this Ordinance shall apply only to factories as defined in this Ordinance, unless there is another express provision therein on the matter, but they shall apply to all such factories if no other intention is to be implied.

In this Section, "a place deemed to be a factory" – premises or a place to which, or in respect of which, the provisions of this Ordinance, all or some of them, apply under the provisions of sections 180, 184, 185, 187, 191 or 194.

The provisions of this Ordinance, all or some of them as the case may be, shall apply to a factory and to a place deemed to be a factory belonging to or occupied by the State, or in which building or engineering construction is carried out by or on behalf of the State.

In circumstances of an emergency the Minister may, by Regulations, to the extent and for the period expressed therein, exempt from this Ordinance –

In this Section –

"painted" – painted with oil paint or with any other substance approved for the purposes of this Section by Regulations made by the Minister, or coated with varnish;

"walls and ceilings" – every interior wall, partition, ceiling and roof of the rooms, and every wall, side and roof of the corridors and stairways.

For the purposes of section 18(a)(2), the Minister may by Regulations prescribe for repainting periods shorter than seven years, provided they are not shorter than fourteen months.

If it appears to a regional inspector that in a particular factory or part thereof the maintenance thereof in a clean state does not require the observance of the provisions of this Section, or that by reason of special circumstances the said provisions are not suitable or sufficient for maintaining it in a clean state, he may, if he sees fit, direct by certificate that the provisions shall not apply to that factory or part thereof, or that they shall apply with modifications specified in the said certificate.