Hong Kong’s Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Chris Sun Yuk-han, announced on Tuesday that the government is working to complete a comprehensive revamp of the city’s 'Heat Stress at Work Warning' system. The update is expected to be finished by the end of this month. This initiative comes in response to widespread criticism that the current system failed to provide adequate protection or warnings to workers during recent periods of extreme, record-breaking heat.

According to the Labour and Welfare Bureau, the process of updating the system involves complex technical and administrative adjustments. Officials are currently focused on recalibrating the activation thresholds that trigger the warnings. Additionally, the government is determining the specific operational protocols that will accompany these alerts to ensure they are effective in safeguarding outdoor workers. While the minister emphasized that the work requires thorough preparation at multiple levels, he maintained that the timeline for completion remains fixed for the end of the month. The government has not yet released specific details on how the new thresholds will differ from the existing ones, but the stated goal is to ensure the system better reflects the reality of the city's changing climate patterns and the associated risks to the labor force.