Safety officer, construction firm project director jailed for 2017 death of foreign worker near Changi Airport site

SINGAPORE — Two men have been jailed for negligence that resulted in the death of a Bangladeshi worker in 2017, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said in a statement on Thursday (Sept 24).

Workplace safety and health officer Tan Wee Meng was jailed two months while Lee Chung Ling, a project director with Chan & Chan Engineering, was given a three-month jail term on Wednesday for offences under Section 15(3A) of the Workplace Safety and Health Act.

MOM said that Tan and Lee pleaded guilty on Aug 20 to committing negligent acts that endangered the safety of workers constructing a high-tension cable conduit.

Miah Salim, a 43-year-old Bangladeshi, was one of six people working at a site near Changi Airport’s Terminal 4 in March 2017.

He was in an excavated pit when he was hit and crushed by a dislodged metal plate weighing about 1,000kg.

As the workplace safety and health officer registered with MOM, Tan failed to assist Chan & Chan Engineering, which employed him and Miah, to identify and assess any foreseeable risk arising from the methods used to construct the high-tension cable conduit, the ministry said.

He also did not recommend to the company “reasonably practicable” measures to eliminate foreseeable risks to workers and failed to conduct risk assessments and safe work procedures.

Separately, Lee, as the project manager onsite, failed to review the work method and processes for the formwork construction of the cable conduit.

He also did not ensure that Chan & Chan Engineering appointed a formwork supervisor for formwork activities at the workplace.

Lee did not approve risk assessments and safe work procedures for the use of metal module formwork at the site and did not ensure that the control measures in the risk assessment for the works were implemented, specifically for the formwork activities within the workplace.

Chan & Chan Engineering was earlier fined S$150,000 for failing to take reasonably practicable measures to ensure the safety and health of its employees.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story stated that Tan Wee Meng was an MOM workplace safety and health officer. This is incorrect. MOM handles the registration of workplace safety and health​ officers, but the officers are not MOM employees, the ministry said.