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Oral Answer by Mr Sam Tan, Minister of State for Manpower, to Parliamentary Question on reviewing the Workplace Safety and Health Act

Workplace safety and health
NOTICE PAPER NO. 766 OF 2017 FOR THE SITTING ON 1 AUG 2017
QUESTION NO. 1337 FOR ORAL ANSWER

MP: Mr Desmond Choo

To ask the Minister for Manpower (a) whether the Ministry will review the current liabilities and penalties under the Workplace Safety and Health Act; and (b) how can the Ministry further improve the workplace safety competency of companies and their workers.

Answer
  1. MOM conducts regular reviews of the Workplace Safety and Health Act (WSHA) to keep it relevant. Since enactment in 2006, it was amended in 2008 and 2011. We have started a third review since earlier this year, and aim to complete it by the end of the year. 
  2. Safety competency is a function of enforcement, awareness and training. On enforcement, MOM conducts more than 16,000 inspections per year, which lead to companies remedying any safety gaps found. On awareness, the Workplace Safety and Health Council, where I’m happy that SNEF and NTUC are represented, has education programmes that reach out to 500,000 workers a year. On training, more than 150,000 workers undergo safety training every year. The Workplace Safety and Health Council is partnering SkillsFuture Singapore to enhance the WSH training curriculum of workers, supervisors and managers over the next two years. The Council also has the bizSAFE and CultureSAFE initiatives for companies, which build WSH management capabilities and foster a strong culture of WSH. As of 2016, over 27,000 companies have benefitted from these programmes.
  3. WSH is everyone’s collective responsibility. We encourage members of the public to play an active role to report any unsafe work practices, by calling or emailing MOM, or using our Snap@MOM mobile application.