China-based construction firm fined S$130,000 for failure to address safety lapses

SINGAPORE —  A construction firm has been fined S$130,000 for not fixing safety lapses at a condominium worksite last year, despite being having been penalised twice, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said on Thursday (Aug 3).

Kingsford Construction was found in June last year to have repeated several safety lapses that had been flagged by MOM inspectors on two previous occasions in October 2014 and May 2015. The firm is engaged to carry out construction works at the Hillview Peak condominium in Upper Bukit Timah.

In these earlier incidents, the construction firm was issued stop-work orders (SWOs) and fined a total of S$29,000. 

However, the safety lapses reoccurred after the SWOs were lifted following inspections, the MOM said.

The lapses found during the June 2016 inspections included open sides at eight different locations, such as the upper floors of the various blocks under construction, that were not covered or guarded by effective guardrails or barriers to prevent workers from falling. Some staircases were also not provided with handrails, exposing workers to the risk of falling off the edge.

Kingsford was issued with a full SWO again from June 8 to July 18 last year. 

The Temporary Occupation Permit (TOP) date for the condominium development has been pushed back from November 2016 to this year.

Kingsford Construction is affiliated to developer Kingsford Development, which has built several properties in Singapore, China and Australia. Another Kingsford Development project is the Kingsford Waterbay in the Upper Serangoon area.

In its statement, the MOM said that Kingsford Construction had shown a “recalcitrant attitude towards workplace safety and health”.

The MOM’s director of occupational safety and health inspectorate Chan Yew Kwong said the ministry sought a heavier penalty for the firm, under the Workplace Safety and Health Act, after the third instance due to “Kingsford’s blatant disregard for safety and its repeated failures to comply with our regulatory requirements”.

He added: “Companies must address all safety failures identified during a MOM inspection and put in place effective measures to prevent recurrence. They should not put their workers’ lives at risk and wait for an accident to happen before taking safety seriously.”