MOM reviewing penalties, legislative framework for workplace safety

SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) is undertaking a further review of its regulatory penalties and the legislative framework for Workplace Safety and Health infringements.

Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said this is to ensure that both the ministry and the courts are able to send a stronger deterrent message.

He was speaking at the launch of this year’s Workplace Safety and Health (WSH) Campaign this morning (May 7).

Mr Tharman, who is also Finance Minister, said more has to be done, and one way is to institute workplace safety and health risk management further upstream. This means developers in Singapore will be required to put more effort into ensuring their designs are safe.

Mr Tharman also announced that the Government has decided to mandate the Design for Safety programme for all developers, in a bid to ensure better workplace safety and health risk management upstream. Currently, adoption of the programme, which aims to reduce safety and health risks through good design, is on a voluntary basis.

Mr Tharman said that based on existing guidelines, developers could be expected to institute a design for safety review process involving relevant stakeholders from the start of the project. This means thinking through risk factors in construction and maintenance of the building based on the designs.

Sufficient time and resources should also be allocated and take into account the risks highlighted in the design for safety process. Those at the construction and maintenance stage should also understand and factor the risk into their work.

An inter-agency workgroup led by the MOM and Building and Construction Authority will be formed to work out implementation details of the mandatory framework for Design for Safety, in consultation with the industry.

Mr Tharman added that the regulatory requirements and time frame for implementation will be announced by the end of this year.

He said Singapore is at an inflection point. While good results have been achieved in bringing down the overall workplace fatality rate from 4.0 per 100,000 employees in 2005 to 2.1 last year, Mr Tharman said the rate of improvement has slowed and Singapore is at risk of plateauing or even slipping back.

He noted that the workplace safety and health performance in the first three months of this year is of grave concern.

There were 19 workplace fatalities in the first quarter, five more compared to the same period last year. Twelve of the 19 lives were lost in the construction sector. The fatality rate in the construction sector has increased from 5.5 in 2011, to 5.9 in 2012, and then to 7.0 last year.

Equal emphasis also has to be placed on workplace health, said Mr Tharman.

A study by the WSH institute shows work-related ill health costs about S$9 billion in 2011.

The MOM, the Health Promotion Board and the WSH Council have developed a guide to help employers adopt the total WSH approach.

A new Tripartite Oversight Committee chaired by Senior Minister of State for Health and Manpower, Dr Amy Khor, has also been formed to drive the initiative. CHANNEL NEWSASIA