Claims Made Under Work Injury Compensation Act in Past Five Years

Dr Tan Wu Meng asked the Minister for Manpower in each of the past five years, under the Work Injury Compensation Act 2019 (a) how many claims have arisen for (i) any form of personal injury (ii) permanent incapacity and (iii) death arising from accidents, in the course of employment as delivery riders; (b) how many of these claims are for persons on part-time or flexi-work arrangements of employment; and (c) what are the respective median compensation benefits awarded.

Table 1 shows the number of work injury compensation claims in the past five years made by delivery employees, who are entitled to work injury compensation from their employer under the Work Injury Compensation Act. The figures do not include delivery riders who work as self-employed persons.

There was a change in reporting methodology in 2020 and so the claims numbers before 2020 cannot be directly compared with those after. We have shown two sets of numbers in Table 1. The first applies the pre-2020 methodology across all the years, where no significant trend is observed. The second presents the numbers as reported from 2020 based on the new methodology.

The Workplace Safety and Health Council is working with delivery companies, which includes delivery employers and platform operators, to review work processes to enhance the safety of delivery workers on the road to prevent accidents, including employees and self-employed persons. In addition, the Advisory Committee on Platform Workers is looking at strengthening financial protection in case of work injury for platform workers, including delivery persons who are self-employed. More details will be shared when ready.

The Ministry only tracks the lump sum compensation for work injury cases resulting in Permanent Incapacity and fatality. The median lump sum compensation awarded to delivery employees for Permanent Incapacity, which includes fractures, sprains and cuts, are at Table 2 below. There were no work injuries resulting in fatality, as indicated in Table 1.

The Ministry does not track claimants’ work arrangements (e.g. part-time or on flexi-work arrangements).