Keeping Workplaces Safe Beyond the Heightened Safety Period

Mr Speaker, in August 2022, I filed an Adjournment Motion and spoke about the need for us to prioritise the safety of every worker.

The Labour Movement was concerned that the COVID-19 pandemic had seemingly undone all the good workplace safety and health (WSH) practices nurtured over many years. The rush that many companies embarked on to clear the backlog of work had resulted in a spike in workplace accidents, injuries and fatalities.

In my speech then, I had proposed five action areas to further improve WSH practices: (a) establish safe and easy-to-use Reporting channels; (b) partner the unions to enhance safety Inspections; (c) step up safety Gearing of our workers; (d) mandate Higher management's commitment to safety; and (e) leverage Technology to enhance workplace safety. These five areas make up the acronym "RIGHT".

In response, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) instituted the Heightened Safety Period (HSP) in September 2022. I think we can all agree that the measures imposed under the HSP were unprecedented and tough but effective.

In his speech at the annual WSH Awards last month, Senior Minister of State Zaqy Mohamad provided an update on the workplace fatality rate. For the first half of 2023, the annualised fatality rate per 100,000 workers was about 0.8. This was a significant improvement from a rate of 1.3 in the second half of 2022 and about 1.6 in the first half of 2022. Clearly, the additional WSH obligations and increased penalties against errant companies imposed by MOM as part of HSP had undoubtedly worked well in driving down workplace fatalities.

Notable features of HSP included increased penalties for safety breaches, senior management having to account personally for serious safety lapses and barring errant companies from hiring foreign workers for up to three months.

Towards the end of HSP, the Labour Movement was concerned that workplace fatalities could rise if we were to exit HSP prematurely. In May this year, I filed a Parliamentary Question asking if MOM could extend the HSP. I was concerned that the strong safety culture imposed by company management during HSP did not have the necessary lead time to sink in and to take root.

Sir, it takes years to build a collective and strong WSH culture. Lifting the HSP after just eight months could undo all our hard work.

MOM eventually decided to lift the HSP from 1 June 2023 while retaining some of the HSP features, such as the enhanced penalties and requiring senior management to account personally for serious safety lapses.

Unfortunately, my fears seem to be coming true. Based on the National Trades Union Congress’ (NTUC) internal tracking, within just three months of exiting the HSP, 13 workers tragically lost their lives between June and August 2023. I must add the caveat that this is not an official figure as the cases are a collation of inputs from our unions and associations. Subject to MOM's confirmation of the statistics, this would mean that the fatality rate had gone up from about 2.3 cases per month during the HSP to an alarming 4.3 cases per month in the three months post-HSP.

Sir, these fatalities are not just statistics. Every worker is a father or mother, son or daughter, brother or sister. They leave behind loved ones who mourn their passing, loved ones who have to deal with the sudden and unexpected loss of a key breadwinner of the family. Closure will be hard to find. This is why I have filed my second Adjournment Motion today on keeping our workplaces safe beyond the HSP.

Mr Speaker, I have four suggestions on how the Government and the industry can work together to do so. In my first Adjournment Motion last year, I used the acronym "RIGHT" to encapsulate my five recommendations. My acronym today is "SAFE", which stands for: (a) Safety by design; (b) All workplaces to have a dedicated WSH professional; (c) Financial penalties to augment composition fines and stop work orders; and (d) Enforcement checks of unsafe workplace practices.

First, safety by design. This is a set of principles that prioritises the safety of workers when designing the worksite. Today, MOM has in place the WSH (Design for Safety) Regulations that specify the duties of developers, contractors and designers. This should be reviewed and expanded. The scope of obligations should cover risks beyond just the construction phase. All workplaces, from blue-collar to white-collar jobs, should have a continuing obligation to design and provide a workplace that prioritises the safety of the workers.

"Safety by design" considerations could include simple things such as proper lighting to prevent eye strain and even adopting anti-slip flooring materials to avoid slips, trips and falls.

Under our current law, the Workplace Safety and Health (Risk Management) Regulations state that employers are responsible for identifying safety and health hazards at workplaces and taking measures to eliminate or reduce the risks. But, Sir, we must move away from this mental model of looking at risks and hazards as things to be managed away. Instead, companies need to actively put safety at the forefront of designing their worksites and their offices.

Companies that design workplaces for employees' safety will send a strong message to their employees that they care as an employer and will be rewarded with a healthier and more productive workforce.

In the US, the Occupational Safety and Health Law does place a continuing obligation on employers to provide a safe workplace, regardless of whether the sector is deemed to be high-risk. I hope that MOM could study relevant overseas jurisdictions and expand regulations to impose safety by design on all employers.

Next, all workplaces need a dedicated WSH professional.

Mr Speaker, I have spoken for years about the need to impose an obligation for all workplaces to hire dedicated WSH officers beyond the limited settings today. I am confident that mandating a WSH officer to review all aspects of safety in a company will help move the needle in making workplaces that much safer.

Even if we cannot immediately move to mandate all workplaces to hire a dedicated WSH professional, we can and we should start by expanding the list of companies that are required to employ one. Take, for example, our logistics and transportation sector, which accounted for four fatalities in 2021, one fatality in 2022 and five thus far this year. Although classified as a high-risk sector, logistics companies are not required to appoint a WSH officer. This is inconsistent with other high-risk sectors.

Next, I propose that we should increase the financial penalties faced by companies in the event of a workplace fatality. Currently, penalties for errant companies mostly involve composition fines and Stop Work Orders. I argue that this is insufficient. I propose for all Government agencies to include a WSH clause in every condition of their respective licences.

Take, for example, the construction sector. A construction company is at risk of being debarred under the Demerit Point System (DPS) should the company have frequent safety infringements. The DPS concept should be expanded to all companies that are licensed in some shape or form by any Government agency. This can be done by inserting WSH-related clauses into their licensing conditions.

Sir, today, many large-scale construction projects in Singapore are carried out by joint venture companies – several individual firms pooling resources to establish a new legal entity. In line with this trend, workplace accidents at such worksites are also becoming commonplace.

Can MOM confirm if penalties imposed on workplace safety breaches accrue to a joint venture or to the individual companies that form that joint venture? Does MOM have a disqualification framework to disqualify a company director or any associate that he may use as a proxy from setting up a new company after one company had been debarred for safety breaches by MOM?

Lastly, I urge MOM to further tighten enforcement of unsafe work practices. Whenever there is a workplace accident or workplace fatality, it is very common to hear anecdotally that that particular unsafe work practice had been happening regularly, sometimes for months and sometimes even for years.

While I note that MOM has been stepping up its enforcement operations, there is scope to do more because lives and limbs are at stake. We must step up enforcement checks more frequently to deter companies from cutting corners in workplace safety practices.

As I have mentioned numerous times in this House, we must make it easier for workers and members of the public to whistle-blow and flag unsafe workplace practices. It should take no more than a snap of a picture and a short description of the egregious activity on a mobile application for anyone to flag out a potentially life-threatening and unsafe workplace practice.

Mr Speaker, the suggestions that I have laid out are simple to follow. By doing what is safe and what is right, we can make our workplaces much safer.

The Labour Movement stands ready to partner all our tripartite partners to keep our workplaces safe beyond the HSP. To complement this year's national WSH campaign, NTUC will be launching our own WSH campaign later this week on Friday, with a focus on reporting without reprisal and on reporting without retribution.

Workers must feel safe to report any workplace safety concern to their management. Workers can escalate any WSH matter to the unions if the company management fails to act on any safety reports. A safe workplace must be a basic right for every worker.

Sir, let me repeat that. A safe workplace must be a basic right for every worker.

Sir, I hope that this will be my last Adjournment Motion related to workplace safety. I urge the Government and the industry to take workplace safety and health seriously, work closely with NTUC and do what is safe and right.

Together, we can help every worker return home from work safe and sound, every day. [Applause.]

I thank the Member for raising this matter. Workplace safety and health (WSH) did not begin with the start of the Heightened Safety Period (HSP), and neither does it stop when the HSP ends.

Every worker deserves a safe and healthy working environment. Our starting position is Vision Zero. We will always strive for zero fatality as every fatality is one too many and every incident is preventable.

Our WSH aspiration remains to achieve a fatal injury rate of below 1.0 per 100,000 workers on a sustained basis by 2028. What this means is that we – the Government, employers and workers – must continue to strengthen our workplace safety culture and work environments to achieve this.

As the Member had pointed out, the fatal injury rate has improved to 0.8 per 100,000 workers in the first half of 2023. Prior to the HSP, we faced a fatal injury rate of 1.6 in the first half of 2022 and this necessitated the heightened measures of HSP to stem the tide of incidents. Our progress one year on reflects the outcome from HSP, which ended on 31 May 2023. So, I share the Member's concerns on the number of workplace fatalities since we exited the HSP.

However, we do need to recognise that there will be some month-to-month volatility in fatality numbers and assess the situation over a longer period. I would like to assure the Member that our rolling 12-month fatal injury rate to-date is 1.0, which remains close to our WSH 2028 aspiration of below 1.0.

I would like to refer Members to the international WSH comparison chart in the handout that was distributed just now. Thus far, only four countries in the world have achieved a fatality rate of below 1.0 consistently. Singapore ranked fifth based on our three-year average fatal injury rate, after the UK, the Netherlands, Sweden and Germany. Other countries in Asia have not achieved this.

So, contrary to what the Member had shared, post-HSP, we have actually retained most of the broad-based and sectorial measures of the HSP, such as requiring chief executives to personally account for serious WSH lapses. We also introduced a revised Demerit Points System to debar more errant construction companies from hiring foreign employees for a period of time.

Following the HSP exit, the Multi-Agency Workplace Safety and Health Taskforce (MAST) introduced a set of Safe Accountability, Focus and Empowerment (SAFE) measures to instil greater WSH accountability at the sector, company and individual levels. MAST is progressively rolling out these SAFE measures and will continue to drive new measures. Members can refer to the infographic in the handout on the various measures that we are implementing and have implemented. I hope this assures Members that we hold ourselves to high standards and, even post-HSP, we will not let up on our efforts.

We have seen improvement in the construction sector in the first half of 2023. In particular, fatal injuries for regular construction worksites have improved as our efforts have kept them vigilant.

More targeted interventions are required for smaller-scale construction work, including renovations and facility management, which accounted for the majority of the fatal and major injuries in construction. So, it is not so much the larger sites but all these renovations and maintenance work that have been causing us these issues. So, we are working with the relevant agencies to enhance the safety standards for such contractors.

MAST will also continue to strengthen WSH ownership in construction, such as by introducing more stringent safety requirements and a WSH bonus scheme for public project tenders.

One sector of concern is manufacturing. Manufacturing was the top contributor of workplace fatal and major injuries in the first half of 2023, with 35% more injuries compared to the second half of 2022. The expansion of the Demerit Points System to the manufacturing sector in October 2023 should deter WSH breaches and strengthen standards. So, we are moving on from construction and now to manufacturing. Egregious companies will be temporarily debarred from hiring foreign workers.

I agree with the Member on the need to increase the financial penalties to deter WSH contraventions. During HSP, we doubled the quantum of composition fines for WSH lapses and we have retained this measure. To further enhance deterrence, we will be increasing the maximum fine from $20,000 to $50,000 for breaches of WSH Act Subsidiary Legislation that could result in death or serious bodily injury, and this is per breach.

Beyond composition fines and Stop Work Orders, the maximum penalty for WSH Act breaches for an individual is a fine of up to $200,000 and/or two years' imprisonment, while that for a company is a fine of up to $500,000.

On the Member’s suggestion to expand the current WSH (Design for Safety) Regulations, I agree that "Design for Safety" is important. It is an upstream process to identify and reduce risks through good design at the conceptual and planning stages, such as incorporating safe access to maintenance in the building design.

Employers' duties to conduct risk management and take reasonable steps to eliminate or minimise risk serve as a safety net. This ensures that employers continuously provide and maintain a safe and healthy work environment for their employees. In doing so, they should already consider control measures, such as providing appropriate safety training and equipment, to reduce the risks.

Moving on to WSH officers. Competent WSH officers who can manage WSH risks are essential to support better WSH outcomes. MAST is looking to strengthen the effectiveness of our WSH officers and their reporting lines to stakeholders so that they can carry out their duties better.

On the Member's suggestion to expand WSH officers to other higher-risk industries, we will need to assess the effectiveness of having WSH officers in such industries and the potential impact on workplace fatal and major injuries. So, this is something that we will study.

Even so, what is more important is for corporate leadership to take charge and be accountable for workplace safety and health. Corporate leaders have influence over resources and priorities that drive their organisations' safety culture. MOM had earlier rolled out the Approved Code of Practice for Company Directors' WSH Duties to provide guidance on how they may fulfil their WSH obligations. MOM is also reviewing our framework to close the gap where errant companies or culpable company directors can absolve their WSH responsibilities by setting up a new entity to circumvent penalties due to WSH breaches, such as debarment from hiring foreign workers. This is aligned with the Member's suggestion to have a disqualification framework or to extend WSH penalties from joint ventures to partnering companies.

The Member suggested that MOM should tighten our WSH enforcement and make the reporting of unsafe workplace practices easier. MOM has not wavered in our enforcement efforts. On the contrary, we have intensified inspections to ensure that employers maintain a strong focus on safety.

Earlier in May, MAST launched the National WSH Campaign with the theme "Reporting Saves Lives" to support workers in taking ownership of their own and their co-workers' safety. It is not just about the workers, but it is also about those around them, too. The campaign called for employers to facilitate an internal reporting system for workers to report unsafe workplace practices to their supervisors.

MOM has also enhanced various channels to make reporting easy, including a dedicated SnapSAFE page on MOM website. So, SnapSAFE, as the Member suggested, is easy to use. One just uploads a photo and keys in a brief description of the occurrence, and we will take it from there.

Members of the public can also play an important role to be our "eyes on the ground" by reporting unsafe work practices. MOM looks into every reported case. We will take action against errant work practices, and we will also offer whistle-blower protection. For that, we also assure.

Sir, we remain committed to Vision Zero and our WSH 2028 goals. While we have exited HSP, rest assured that we will continue to pursue safe measures to build stronger workplace safety culture and ownership across Singapore.

We cannot achieve this on our own. All of us, from corporate leadership, industry associations, union leaders to workers, must continue to play our part to uplift workplace safety and health so that every worker can return home safely to their loved ones.

*Question put, and agreed to.*

*Resolved, "That Parliament do now adjourn."*

Adjourned accordingly at 6.44 pm.