Rising Workplace Fatalities Prompting Reintroduction of Heightened Safety Period Interventions and Adequacy of Current Safety Measures
Ministry of ManpowerSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns the criteria for reintroducing Heightened Safety Period (HSP) interventions following a rise in workplace fatalities in the first half of 2026, raised by Mr Abdul Muhaimin Abdul Malik to the Acting Minister for Manpower. In response, Ms Jasmin Lau explained that HSP decisions depend on overall safety performance, incident patterns, and systemic issues, unlike in September 2022 when the annualised fatality rate reached 1.5 per 100,000 workers. For the first half of 2026, incidents lacked systemic causes across different industries, major injury rates improved, and seven of the 21 fatalities were work-related traffic accidents rather than safety lapses. Consequently, the Multi-Agency Workplace Safety and Health Taskforce introduced enhanced penalties, a two-week nationwide voluntary Safety Time-Out, and a traffic safety advisory instead of an HSP. The Ministry of Manpower will continue monitoring the workplace risk landscape and calibrating interventions as necessary.
Transcript
77 Mr Abdul Muhaimin Abdul Malik asked the Acting Minister for Manpower (a) in view of the rise in workplace fatalities in the first half of 2026 compared to the same period in the preceding two years, what fatality rate or trend will prompt the Ministry to reintroduce Heightened Safety Period-style interventions; and (b) whether the current measures remain adequate to reverse this trend.
Ms Jasmin Lau: The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) considers overall safety performance, incident patterns, and whether there are underlying systemic issues before deciding whether to introduce a Heightened Safety Period (HSP). MOM introduced the HSP in September 2022 in response to a spate of fatalities as businesses resumed operations following the COVID-19 disruption and when the annualised workplace fatality rate per 100,000 workers reached 1.5 then.
However, this was not the case for the situation in the first half of 2026. While there was a spate of fatalities over four weeks in end-May to June, the incidents occurred across different industries without underlying systemic causes. Furthermore, the workplace major injury rate had continued to improve, and seven out of the 21 fatalities in the first half of 2026 were due to work-related traffic accidents rather than workplace safety lapses.
Taking into consideration these factors, the Multi-Agency Workplace Safety and Health Taskforce introduced enhanced penalties, a two-week nationwide voluntary Safety Time-Out and a joint advisory on work-related traffic safety in June instead of entering a HSP. MOM will continue to monitor the workplace risk landscape and calibrate our intervention measures as necessary.