Foreign Workers with Injuries or Occupational Diseases Sustained at Work who Filed Claim under Work Injury Compensation Act

16 Mr Zainal Sapari asked the Minister for Manpower (a) since 2017, what is the number of foreign workers with injuries or occupational diseases sustained at work who have filed a claim under the Work Injury Compensation Act; (b) what is the breakdown of the nationalities of these claimants; (c) how many have been successful in their claims; and (d) what are the actions taken to discourage false claims.

Mrs Josephine Teo: In 2017 and 2018, there were about 18,200 claims from foreign workers for work-related injury or disease under the Work Injury Compensation Act (WICA). These claimants comprise less than 1% of our foreign workforce. This has stayed around the same level in the last three years. Claimants can be of any nationality but given the occupations they tend to be in, there are more from Bangladesh, China, India and Malaysia.

Among the approximately 17,500 cases that have since concluded, 85% were valid claims, 13% were withdrawn, and the remaining 2% were invalid claims as their injuries were not deemed as work-related.

The vast majority of the invalid claims made in the past two years were due to misunderstanding over what scenarios are claimable under the WICA. We have found five cases in the past two years with dishonest intent to claim compensation. We have initiated prosecution against all of them. Those convicted will face a maximum fine of $15,000 and/or 12 months' imprisonment under the WICA and will be permanently barred from working in Singapore.