Written Answer by Mrs Josephine Teo, Minister for Manpower, to Parliamentary Question on Enforcement Actions Against Employers for Non-Reporting

NOTICE PAPER NO. 1589 OF 2019 FOR THE SITTING ON OR AFTER 6 MARCH 2019

QUESTION NO. 1181 FOR WRITTEN ANSWER

MP: Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang

To ask the Minister for Manpower in each of the past five years (a) how many employers have been prosecuted for failing to report a work-related injury; and (b) how many of these employers who failed to report a work-related injury have been punished with a fine and how many have been punished with imprisonment.

Answer 

1. Non-reporting occurs mostly because employers disputed that the injury was work-related, or was not informed of the injury. Before 2018, we focused on educating employers to have better systems to detect and surface injuries suffered by their employees, and to report injuries brought to their attention even if they believe the injuries were not work-related. Since the start of 2018, we have stepped up our enforcement efforts which led to an increase in the number of employers being taken to task for non-reporting.

Year when employer was penalised for non-reporting	Composition fine cases
2014	0
2015	0
2016	0
2017	1
2018	39
Total	40

2. In addition to the 40 composition fine cases, a site manager was convicted in 2016 for attempting to cover up a workplace accident by abandoning the injured worker along an alley. The manager was jailed six months for the offence. There has been no other case of non-reporting which resulted in imprisonment.