Reviewing and Enhancing Safety Measures in Marine Sector in View of Increased Workplace Fatalities

Speaker, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) took corrective actions to address the increase in workplace fatalities in the marine sector last year. In October 2024, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA), MOM and the Workplace Safety and Health (WSH) Council called on companies in the maritime industry to conduct a Safety Time-Out, with a focus on work activities carried out at anchorages and commercial diving activities. Companies were to review their WSH management systems, reiterate senior management’s focus on safety and refresh workers’ awareness of workplace safety protocols. Companies were also provided with materials on good safety practices and case studies to assist them in mitigating common WSH hazards in the marine sector, such as falling from height and working in confined spaces.

For diving activities, which contributed to two out of five of the sector’s fatalities in 2024, MOM has worked with the Commercial Diving Association of Singapore to emphasise to the commercial diving community on the importance of adhering to the code of practice for diving at work. This includes ensuring dive personnel are trained and use proper diving equipment. MPA also reminds applicants seeking a diving permit for commercial diving to adhere to the code of practice, amongst other conditions. To ensure compliance, MOM and MPA conducted a joint enforcement operation from September to December 2024, and will ramp up our enforcement efforts this year.

While we observe that there has been no further fatality in the marine sector in 2025 to date, we will continue to closely monitor the sector’s WSH compliance and improve its WSH performance. Together with MPA and the WSH Council, MOM will be engaging senior management of companies from the marine sector to emphasise the importance of building a strong WSH culture. MOM will also be working with MPA to strengthen safety oversight over the marine sector, including reviewing upstream measures to further tighten diving safety standards, especially on the use of proper diving equipment. I urge everyone to play our part in keeping our waters safe and befitting of Singapore’s status as a premier maritime hub.

Sir, I thank the Senior Minister of State for his response, and I also thank the MOM and MPA team for stepping up inspections in the marine sector. But for the marine sector to record five fatalities in 2024, from none in 2023, is very concerning. I believe that the safety standards at our land-based shipyards have improved over the years and most of the recent fatality cases happened in the waters on vessels in anchorage.

I know some of these investigations are still ongoing, but can the Senior Minister of State share if MOM has a sense of what the common causes are in these cases? Were protective gear, such as life jackets and proper diving equipment provided by the companies, worn by the workers? Were there any links to adverse weather conditions in some of these cases?

Vessels in anchorage are considered remote sites, where it is harder for medical help to reach an injured person. And as we all know, response time in an emergency case can be a matter of life and death. Could response time therefore be a contributory factor in these cases because they happen on remote sites? If so, are there any plans to improve the response time of emergency medical help to these remote sites?

I thank the Member for his questions. They are certainly very valid ones. Over the last few years, the safety records of our marine sector has fluctuated. We have had zero in 2023, five in 2024; but overall, it has been anywhere between zero and five.

If we look at the situation last year, indeed, as the Member pointed out, the anchorages were the point of concern, while shipyards have improved. But over time, if we look at the last five years, for example, I would say it is about 50-50. But that does not mean that we take our eyes off our shipyards as well because if you look at the issues at the shipyards, it is not necessarily at the shipyard itself, but it could also be the ancillary activities. The one incident that we had at the shipyard was a worker being struck by a forklift. So, it is not so much shipbuilding, but ancillary activities around the shipyard.

On the other activities in the anchorage, among the other things that happen, investigations aside, drowning during diving works, improper use of scuba gear instead of commercial diving gear, for example. There was another case of a worker being struck by the propeller of a boat during diving works – that was an unfortunate accident. There were others where workers fell from the vessel. If I recall correctly, a safety vest was used but still, unfortunately, perhaps due to the waters. So, there are different incidents. The numbers are quite small, therefore, you have different incidents and there is no clear pattern. But certainly, we will look to see how we can improve.

As for the nature of works, compared to, say, shipyards, I think you are in a better position because you can have land-based medical personnel nearby or you can be reached by ambulances a lot quicker. I think for some of these remote works, unfortunately, that is the case and certainly, we will take the feedback to MPA and see how we can improve access by the medical teams.

But we have to be realistic too that many of these works are also offshore, sometimes quite a distance away from land and not easily accessible. Therefore, I think one of the risk assessments has to also include that the workers out there need to be supported by their own colleagues or counterparts who have access to basic cardiopulmonary resuscitation and basic first aid training. I think those are also important aspects, where we can help to mitigate some of the risks while waiting for the medical personnel to come.