The message on the board reads, “Dear workers, while working outside, please pay attention to work safety. Once an accident happens, other men will sleep with your wife, beat your kids and splurge on all your compensation money”.

A Shenzhen construction company has found an ingenious way to encourage employees to pay attention to work safety. A new sign reads: “Dear workers, while working outside please pay attention to work safety. Once an accident happens, other men will sleep with your wife, beat your kids and splurge on all your compensation money.”

The sign is posted at a construction site on Shenzhen’s Metro Line 9, and has been dubbed “the most awesome safety sign in history” by netizens in China. It’s painfully direct.

Despite efforts to promote work safety at construction sites across the country, accidents still happen frequently and are often fatal. Falling from high places, collapsing scaffolds, and head injuries or explosions all threaten a worker’s life on site.

Many online users praised the sign, Nandu reported. It cited some web comments that said it was “innovative, practical, easy to understand and hard-hitting.” Others associated this edgy and punchy sign with Shenzhen’s city image as a foreground of reform and innovative thinking. One wrote, “It certainly lived up to Shenzhen’s name as a window for reform and opening up. Even its publicity stunts are succinct and precise.”

Some turned the sign into a meme for corrupt officials. User Jysb2010 commented, “Each high-ranking official’s desk should be placed with this alarming sign: Don’t be greedy. Once caught, others will be sleeping your mistress, fathering your son and splurging on your dirty money.”

Construction accidents claim hundreds of lives each year in the country. In March alone, there were 38 construction-related accidents,leading to 41 deaths, according to China Construction Association.

Photos: Nandu