Workplace Injuries and Compensation Given Work-from-home Arrangements

16 Mr Patrick Tay Teck Guan asked the Minister for Manpower with more work-from-home arrangements, whether the Ministry can provide greater clarity on the treatment of work injury compensation including scope, coverage, insurance and premium when one's home is the workplace.

17 Mr Melvin Yong Yik Chye asked the Minister for Manpower (a) in 2019, how many hand and finger-related injuries occurred at our workplaces; (b) how many of these workplace accidents resulted in amputations; (c) what were the top three causes for such accidents; and (d) whether the number of such work-related amputations has increased over the past 10 years despite sustained workplace safety campaigns.

The Minister of State for Manpower (Mr Zaqy Mohamad) (for the Minister for Manpower): Mr Speaker, I will take Question Nos 16 and 17 together.

Mr Speaker: Yes, please.

Mr Zaqy Mohamad: Work-from-home arrangements do not change an employer’s responsibility for work injury compensation. The key is to ascertain that the injury arose while doing work at home and not while performing non-work activities at home. This is a fact-finding exercise that is no different from all other WICA claims. Work Injury Compensation (WIC) insurance is purchased by employers and will cover employees who were injured out of and in the course of doing work at home.

Moving on to Mr Melvin Yong’s question. In 2019, there were 149 hand and finger major injuries at work, of which 123 cases resulted in amputation. This translates to 3.5 cases of hand and finger amputations per 100,000 workers. While we remain very concerned and are continuing efforts to reduce the injury rate, we are encouraged by the trend of improvements. Compared to 2012, when the incidence of hand and finger amputations was 4.8 per 100,000 workers, the improvement we can see now is about 30%.

The top three causes for such accidents were: first, lack of effective machine guards; second, lack of adequate safe work procedures, such as lock-out-tag-out procedures to prevent machine activation during servicing; and third, failure to follow safe work procedures due to lack of experience, training or disregard for safety.

To bring down the occurrence of hand and finger injuries, the Workplace Safety and Health (WSH) Council has stepped up public education to employers and workers on the safe use of machinery. Since 2017, 41,200 workers had attended the two mandatory WSH Basic Industrial Safety training and Health Course for Supervisors, and the Metalworking Safety Orientation Course. The WSH Council has also widened and deepened its engagement efforts to jointly organise the Safe Hands Campaign and sector-specific WSH workshops with the Singapore Metal and Machinery Association, the Singapore Manufacturing Federation and Singapore Furniture Industries Council since 2018. To date, 850 companies have pledged their commitment to Safe Hands. We will continue to engage more companies to come on board.

We are heartened to note that the industry is taking greater ownership to prevent hand and finger injuries. This year, the Singapore Manufacturing Federation spearheaded the first association Safe Hands Campaign. We will keep expanding the coverage of our outreach programmes through the trade associations and unions.

Mr Speaker: Mr Patrick Tay.

Mr Patrick Tay Teck Guan (West Coast): I thank the Minister of State for his response and answer. I have two supplementary questions. Firstly, now that we are seeing a lot of work-from-home arrangements, particularly the circuit breaker, and, moving forward, the whole regime of the Work Injury Compensation Act and insurance premiums and so on, there would be a significant change because when the home becomes a workplace, I think the burden of proof, the level of control by employers will change drastically.

So, I have two supplementary questions. Firstly, in the circuit breaker period during these past two months, were there cases where MOM had received work injury cases as a result of working from home scenarios? Secondly, how is MOM going to determine such workplace injuries, that is, in a work-from-home scenario?

Mr Zaqy Mohamad: Sir, the way we evaluate WICA claims, whether it is the workplace or at home will be no different. It is necessary to determine if the injury arose out of work and in the course of work for it to be compensable. So, there should be evidence that the accident occurred in the course of work while in the act of performing work at home. So, if the injury occurred while doing non-work activity, for example, on the day when the employee is working at home, the person was cooking, looking after children or doing laundry, then it does not count.

So far, if you look at all past claims, they have been successfully settled without disputes, and there have been no eligible fatal or permanent incapacity claims. We have seen this trend. So, the Member is right that since the circuit breaker started, given the increased prevalence of remote working arrangements, we have been starting to track some of these injuries at home. So far, we have only recorded two work injuries reported since the start of the circuit breaker on 7 April. But both claims are currently being examined. I cannot give too much detail now until the investigations are over. But so far, if you look at the valid claims in the past, they have been mostly minor injuries and no permanent incapacity or fatal cases.

To the Member's other question on the insurance premium, we have taken a look but we have not seen any WIC insurance premium come down or there have not been any changes so far. This has been a recent development.

Mr Melvin Yong Yik Chye (Tanjong Pagar): Mr Speaker, I thank the Minister of State for his reply. I would like to ask the Minister of State if the Return to Work Programme has been effective for injured workers who have suffered hand and finger amputations.

Mr Zaqy Mohamad: I thank the Member for his question. From October 2017 to December 2019, there were 38 workers who had hand and finger amputations enrolled in the Return to Work Programme. Of these, 34 out of 38, or approximately 90% of cases successfully returned to work.