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Ensuring workers stay safe for their families back home

SINGAPORE — The men in helmets were lined in neat rows, all of them gulping water from their 1.5-litre PET bottles after a series of morning exercises.

Workers from Bintai Kindenko put on protective visors over acrylic safety goggles and wear heavy-duty gloves to prevent injuries.

Workers from Bintai Kindenko put on protective visors over acrylic safety goggles and wear heavy-duty gloves to prevent injuries.

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SINGAPORE — The men in helmets were lined in neat rows, all of them gulping water from their 1.5-litre PET bottles after a series of morning exercises.

This is not a scene from a national service camp. It is the daily routine for construction workers from engineering firm Bintai Kindenko, before they start work.

They also have a morning briefing which concludes with a supervisor reminding them to “stay safe for (their) families back home”, observed TODAY at a media tour of its Outram Community Hospital worksite on Friday (April 5).

Its assistant vice-president Mohamed Barak, who oversees workplace safety, said: “Bintai Kindenko works together as a family and we will ensure that all the workers will be safe on site.” 

The 47-year-old added that the company places a huge emphasis on workplace safety and health issues, and constantly seeks to improve its safety practices.

Next up, the company is looking to equip workers with a smartwatch in July this year that monitors their heart rate and blood pressure levels.

This information will be made known to the people overseeing the worksite and its main office in Science Park, so that supervisors are informed when workers are unwell.

These practices are in line with the Workplace Safety and Health (WSH) 2028 recommendations announced by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) on Friday (April 5) afternoon at its headquarters on Havelock Road.

A tripartite committee had recommended that MOM examine how to get companies to tap technology to help monitor health, among other things.

This follows a rise in major workplace injury cases — from 574 cases in 2017 to 596 last year. Minor injuries went up from 11,882 cases in 2017 to 12,173 cases last year, said the National WSH Statistic Report 2018.

NEAR-MISS REPORTING

At Bintai Kindenko, reporting of near-misses is encouraged to mitigate potential risks before they escalate.

A week ago, Indian national Subramaniyan Subasachandrabose alerted his supervisors that some worn-out safety visors affected visibility, which could lead to injury during cutting or grinding works. The visors were replaced within the week.

“This is my workplace. I don’t want to hurt myself and my colleagues,” said 31-year-old worker, who has a spouse and a three-year-old daughter back in India.

He added that his fellow colleagues are outspoken and take an active approach to reporting near-misses, attributing it to the company’s workplace safety culture.

Upon spotting a near-miss, workers will report it to their supervisors before filling up a form that, TODAY observed, is readily available at various work stations.

Workers will file their reports before Friday each week, while the supervisors will consolidate these reports and the rectifications a day later.

The information will be presented to other contractors on the project every fortnight, whereas project clients will be briefed monthly on these occurrences.

To encourage active reporting, 15 selected workers will be awarded with S$100 NTUC FairPrice supermarket vouchers for submitting near-miss reports each month as well.

About S$200,000 has been set aside yearly for WSH initiatives for both Bintai Kindenko as well as its subcontractors.

Such a framework has already been implemented for around two years in the company, and the number of near-misses were observed to have gone down since then, said Mr Barak.

This was a stark contrast to some five years ago when workers were afraid to report such incidents, fearing penalties or scolding, said worksite safety coordinator Manikandan Packriswamy.

The company had no major or minor worksite accidents since 2013, clocking a total of 17.7 million accident-free hours.

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workplace safety Bintai Kindenko WSH 2028. accident-free

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