Strengthening Safety at Construction Worksites following Recent Deaths of Two Workers
Ministry of ManpowerSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns whether safety procedures will be strengthened following recent worker fatalities at Lentor Avenue and Resorts World Sentosa, as raised by Ms Hazel Poa. Minister for Manpower Dr Tan See Leng responded that Stop Work Orders were issued to the contractors, requiring safety audits and risk assessments while investigations are ongoing. He highlighted existing policy measures, such as enhanced Workplace Safety and Health requirements for public sector projects and mandatory video surveillance for worksites with contract values of $5 million and above. These efforts contributed to the construction sector's fatal and major injury rate declining from 41.3 in the first half of 2022 to 30.5 in the first half of 2024. The Ministry of Manpower will determine if further industry-wide safety measures are necessary once the current incident investigations conclude.
Transcript
40 Ms Hazel Poa asked the Minister for Manpower (a) whether safety procedures will be reviewed to further strengthen safety at worksites, in view of the recent deaths of two workers at a worksite in Lentor Avenue and another worker at a worksite in Resorts World Sentosa; and (b) if so, what are these measures.
Dr Tan See Leng: The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has issued Stop Work Orders (SWOs) to the contractors involved in the incidents at Lentor Avenue and Resorts World Sentosa, requiring them to review their workplace safety measures before the SWOs can be lifted. The contractors must conduct risk assessments for workplace activities and audits of their safety and health management systems. They are also required to submit plans to address the audit recommendations to MOM. Meanwhile, investigations into the two incidents are ongoing. MOM will determine if additional safety measures are necessary for all worksites, after investigations have concluded.
Nonetheless, the Multi-Agency Workplace Safety and Health Taskforce (MAST) has continued to roll out measures to strengthen the Workplace Safety and Health (WSH) standards in the construction sector. These include the enhanced WSH requirements for public sector construction and construction-related projects introduced in April 2024 and the mandatory Video Surveillance System for construction worksites with contract values of $5 million and above introduced in June 2024. These measures complement the suite of measures that MAST has implemented since the Heightened Safety Period in 2022, which has led to improvements in WSH performance for 2023 and the first half of 2024. Specifically, the workplace fatal and major injury rate for the construction sector declined from 41.3 per 100,000 workers for the first half of 2022 to 30.5 for the first half of 2024.