A concern group for industrial accident victims on Wednesday urged authorities to issue specific licences to contractors that carry out scaffolding-related work.

Siu Sin-man of the Association for the Rights of Industrial Accident Victims made the comment after a worker fell to his death on Tuesday while dismantling bamboo scaffolding from a To Kwa Wan building.

Currently, bamboo scaffolding workers must be accredited by the Occupational Safety and Health Council – and their licences have to be renewed.

But contractors do not have similar requirements. They only need to be registered under the Buildings Ordinance.

Siu said having a more specific licensing system for contractors could enhance regulations.

“Scaffolding is a high-risk industry. If we only use business registration, [there’s not enough] regulation for this kind of work. So people can easily open a company to do this high-risk [job],” she said.

Siu added that she is unsure whether the worker who died was wearing proper safety equipment when the incident occurred.

The worker’s relatives held a mourning ceremony earlier in the day.

His wife said her husband operated a company with several partners, and that he spent more than 20 years in the field and was always very careful.