Most workplace fatalities this year occurred in SMEs, all involving experienced workers: Tan See Leng

SINGAPORE — Most of the workplace fatalities this year involved workers hired by small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and all 28 workers who died in these incidents had at least two years of working experience, Manpower Minister Tan See Leng said on Monday (July 4).

Dr Tan, who was responding to questions on workplace safety by Members of Parliament from both sides of the aisle, added that 80 per cent of these fatalities occurred in industries with higher-risk work settings.

He said that based on preliminary investigations, most of these accidents were due to preventable safety lapses such as inadequate control measures or lack of adherence to safe work procedures.

Giving a further breakdown, Dr Tan said that 10 of the deaths had occurred in the construction sector, five in transport and storage, and four each in marine and manufacturing.

Falling from height and vehicular accidents accounted for half the deaths, he said.

“All of the accidents involved workers with at least two years of working experience and therefore inexperience is unlikely to be a contributory factor,” he said, adding that for cases where co-workers were involved, all co-workers had at least three years of working experience.

The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) had announced earlier that out of the 10 fatal accidents in the construction sector, six were from small firms with 100 workers or less.

Industry players who spoke to TODAY previously said that pandemic-related work backlog and the lack of resources to up safety standards had contributed to the concerning fatality numbers in the first six months of this year, which is much higher than the 17 deaths recorded in the same period in 2019. 

WORK-STOP ORDERS DOUBLED FROM LAST YEAR

Dr Tan said that MOM received around 2,400 to 3,800 reports a year in the past five years on unsafe acts in the workplace from various channels, adding that the ministry assessed each feedback seriously and conducted inspections where needed.

“Around 84 per cent of inspections conducted following reports of unsafe acts in the past 12 months resulted in enforcement actions taken, including fines and stop work orders,” he said.

More than 3,500 inspections in the higher-risk sectors such as construction, marine and manufacturing were conducted between January and June this year, said Dr Tan. This was 35 per cent higher than the same period last year.

MOM took enforcement action for more than 9,000 breaches under the Workplace Safety and Health Act and Regulations, and issued more than 50 Stop Work Orders, a two-fold increase compared to the same period last year.

In all, however, Dr Tan said that good progress has been made from a decade ago, with the fatality rate down to 1.1 per 100,000 workers in 2021, from 2.1 per 100,000 in 2012.

As at end 2021, Singapore is on track to meeting its 2028 goal of workplace fatal injury rate of less than 1.0 per 100,000 workers, which has been achieved by only four Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development countries.