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.

There is an increasingly larger proportion of workforce 50 years of age or older. This ageing trend is prevalent in the Hong Kong construction industry. The implications of this ageing trend for the construction industry are the decline in workforce productivity due to old age, compromised health, safety, and well-being; and the shortage of workforce. Coupled with various organisational and institutional shortcomings in the industry that lead to unfavourable working environment, these situations not only negatively affect the economic viability of the construction industry but also give rise to other psychosocial problems experienced by the older workers. Despite these situations, we know very little of the conditions older construction workers experience in the construction industry.There is therefore a need to investigate such issues and propose possible interventions to improve the working conditions of the 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 firms in Hong Kong. The findings reveal that despite the industry under appreciation of the ageing workforce, there are interventions implemented by progressive contracting firms that can potentially provide health and safety protection to the workforce of all ages although these firms are small in number. This article is an extended version of a conference paper that appeared as Koh et al. (2019).