The Occupational Safety and Health Division (OSHD) works closely with stakeholders to promote workplace safety and health through legislation, policies, capability building and engagement programmes.
About us
The Occupational Safety and Health Division (OSHD) promotes workplace safety and health (WSH) at the national level.
We work with employers, employees and other stakeholders to identify, assess and manage workplace safety and health risks to eliminate death, injury and ill-health.
Vision
A healthy workforce in safe workplaces;
A country renowned for best practices in workplace safety and health
Mission
To prevent all work-related death, injury & ill-health.
Our goal
OSHD’s ambition is for Singapore to be one of the safest workplaces in the world. The WSH 2028 launched in 2019 is a 10-year WSH strategy to realise our vision where stakeholders are committed to preventing all forms of injury and ill-health at work. OSHD aims to reduce the workplace fatality rate to below 1.0 per 100,000 workers and major injury rate to below 12.0 per 100,000 by 2028.
Strategic outcomes
The WSH 2028 identified four Strategic Outcomes (SO):
- SO 1: Sustained reduction in workplace injury rates
- SO 2: Minimise hazards that lead to occupational disease
- SO 3: Promotion of good workforce health
- SO 4: Pervasive adoption of the vision zero culture
How we work
OSHD was reformed on 1 August 2005 to help realise the OSH framework and the Workplace Safety and Health Act through new and expanded capabilities.
OSHD implements the OSH framework through legislation, policies, capability building and engagement programmes. We adopt a proactive and systemic approach to prevent accidents, involving all stakeholders in managing risk.
Working closely with industry, we facilitate risk management and develop a stronger OSH culture. We prevent risks at source, set goals for employers and help companies improve their safety and health management systems.
Our departments
There are six departments within OSHD:
OSH Policy, Information and Corporate Services Department
The Policy, Information and Corporate Services (PICS) department serves a vital role in improving workplace safety and health standards via:
- Driving strategic planning and corporate governance within OSHD.
- Tapping on data and technology, including administering Informational Technology systems for the public to interact with MOM on OSH matters.
OSH Inspectorate
The department focuses on reducing workplace safety and health risks through effective enforcement.
This is accomplished by:
- Targeted risk-based inspections.
- Surveillance of high risk workplaces and engagement with industry to manage risks.
- Investigation of workplace accidents for systemic failures and regulatory lapses.
- Investigation of malpractices by authorised persons.
- Provision of targeted attention to high risk workplaces.
We monitor the effectiveness of our regulatory framework through data analysis to keep it relevant to industry changes.
OSH Specialist Department
The OSH Specialist Department (SPECS) provides specialised expertise and support in the areas of engineering safety, occupational hygiene and occupational medicine. This is accomplished through:
- Provision of technical expertise in the development of WSH standards and best practices.
- Investigation into complex incidents involving engineering equipment, exposure to occupational health hazards and occurrences of occupational diseases.
- Conduct of operational research.
- Development and implementation of strategies and targeted programmes for specific WSH hazards and industries.
- Collaboration with international organisations (like the World Health Organisation and International Labour Organisation) in projects, information exchange and training.
Work Injury Compensation Department
The department ensures the proper management of the work injury compensation system to enable employees with work injuries or occupational disease to receive their compensation expeditiously.
This is achieved by:
- Regulating the designated insurers under WICA 2019
- Ensuring that compensation to injured employees or their dependants are processed expeditiously
- Investigating contraventions under the WICA 2019 and taking appropriate enforcement actions; and
- Adjudicating claims disputes.
Major Hazards Department
The Major Hazards Department (MHD) will assess that Major Hazard Installations (MHI) have established all measures necessary to prevent, and reduce risks to as low as reasonably practicable, as well as to limit the consequences of major accidents.
MHD investigates process-related incidents, to identify core lapses in the management of major accident hazards, including key aspects relating to process safety and risk controls. MHD also designates MHI clusters to facilitate information sharing to protect workplaces and persons likely to be affected by major accidents.
Workplace Safety and Health Institute
The Workplace Safety and Health (WSH) Institute provides forward-looking, evidence-based knowledge and solutions to address current and emerging workplace safety and health challenges.
It does this by:
- Uncovering WSH trends and risks through data
- Anticipating emerging WSH issues
- Developing psychological WSH assessment tools
- Partnering stakeholders in the technology ecosystem to improve WSH through industry-specific technologies