Speech at Workplace Safety and Health Awards 2008
Mr Gan Kim Yong, Acting Minister for Manpower, Shangri-La Hotel
Mr Heng Chiang Gnee
Deputy Chairman, Workplace Safety and Health Council
Award winners,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good Evening.
It gives me great pleasure to join you today at the Workplace Safety and Health Awards 2008.
Introduction
2 Firstly, I would like to commend the WSH Council for its efforts in organising this year's Awards. It was only one year ago when we announced the formation of the WSH Council at this very same event. Since its official launch in April this year, the Council has done much to promote the safety message. Its month-long National WSH Campaign reached some 20,000 workers through 60 industry events in May alone. The Council's Container Exhibition has reached another 80,000 workers since it was launched in April this year. This is a good start to its target of reaching 200,000 workers within a year.
3 Recently, the Council acted swiftly in response to the spate of shipyard accidents. An unprecedented time-out was called by the Association of Singapore Marine Industries. This has rallied the industry to re-assess and tighten its safety processes. Following the accidents, the Council sent out alerts on key learning points and held educational forums for management, safety professionals and supervisors. Such efforts by the Council over the past six months are integral to our national effort to improve WSH outcomes in Singapore. Our success will be determined to a large extent by the dedication and stewardship shown by industry leaders like yourselves.
Key attributes of WSH Award Companies
4 This same commitment to safety outcomes is shared by the 127 WSH Award winners this year. Today, we are here to acknowledge the sterling achievements of these winners who have made significant contributions to creating safer and healthier workplaces.
5 The winning companies have pushed the envelope on good WSH practices. On your table tonight you will find an Awards Commemorative Book with highlights of all 127 winners in this year's Awards. You will find common threads across the companies with the best safety systems and records in Singapore.
6 The first is that safety policies are led by top managers, who personally demonstrate their commitment to safety by their leadership and management. They create a common goal and secure buy-in across all levels in the organisation. They are also actively and personally involved in communicating this goal. Such strong personal commitment by CEOs inspires others to follow their examples.
7 12-time WSH Excellence Award winner Infineum is a case in point. The leadership shown by Infineum's management helps to consistently drive home the safety message to all employees. Monthly plant-wide talks on safety are conducted for all employees and contractors. In addition, its management staff form teams with employees to discuss and share safety matters.
8 Another company with strong safety leadership is Developer Award winner City Developments Limited. In the construction industry, developers can serve as change agents. They can help to raise safety outcomes of their projects by requiring their contractors to treat workplace safety and health as a top priority. This is exactly what CDL has done. It has its own Environment Health and Safety Excellence award to recognise exemplary contractors. On the national front, four of CDL's projects will be awarded the WSH SHARP Awards tonight – a testament to the success of its efforts. This year's award marks CDL's third win in this category, reflecting its leadership position in spearheading safety for the construction industry.
9 The second common feature is a comprehensive system and process for managing safety. Such a system builds capabilities and engenders ownership as well as responsibility in every single employee. We should leave nothing to chance. A system of checks and balances will pre-empt possible problems created by non-compliance or slip-ups. Infineum adopts a self-check system. It appoints Safety, Health and Environment or SHE leaders at the working level to champion safety practices. Infineum has one SHE leader for every four workers. This SHE leader will attend a safety training course and act as a safety mentor for the rest of the group. Groomed to be exemplary workers, the SHE leaders serve as a conduit to ensure that messages are filtered down and their contributions recognised by Infineum for their contributions. CDL has also developed its own Environment, Health and Safety Assessment system which it uses to audit its contractors on a quarterly basis. A seminar is conducted after each audit to share the learning points and improve the WSH performance of CDL's contractors.
10 The third is a system of rewards and incentives to motivate employees to improve safety behaviour, thereby fostering a strong safety culture within the organisation. Motivation is the key to shaping a strong culture. CEOs walk the talk by linking safety performance to their management success. This is also translated to the middle managers and the line supervisors. By doing so, the right climate is created for a strong safety culture to grow.
Recognising individuals committed to safety
11 Apart from corporate systems and processes, individuals also play an important role in raising WSH standards. This year, the WSH Awards recognise 11 individuals who have had a positive influence on safety and health at their respective workplaces. These individual awards were first given to WSH Officers last year. For this year, the Council has created a new award for supervisors, in recognition of the key role they play in ensuring that the safety message is brought home to every worker on the ground.
12 The seven winners of this inaugural award are recognised for their commitment to safety and vigilance at the workplace in arresting unsafe practices. Mr Shukumar from Keppel Singmarine, for example, monitors his workers closely and corrects their safety violations or unsafe behaviour spotted. He takes pain to counsel each worker on proper work practices, so as to inculcate good safety habits in his workers. Thanks to his efforts, his team of over 20 workers has had an excellent safety record over the past three years. For their unstinting dedication to safety, please join me in showing recognition to all our WSH award winners.
New Factory Notification Scheme to raise safety standards
13 Today, I am also pleased to announce that from 1 November this year, my Ministry will introduce a new factory notification scheme to replace the current factory registration process. Under the new scheme, employers will be required to declare that they have implemented risk management, or RM, at their workplaces before they can commence work. This will encourage employers to be even more actively involved in ensuring the implementation of RM and take greater ownership of the outcomes. It builds on the requirements under the Risk Management Regulations, which came into effect more than two years ago. By doing so, we believe that work risks can be better managed and workers can look forward to safer workplaces.
14 While we have tightened the RM requirements, we have also streamlined and simplified the registration process significantly. Instead of having to be registered every one or two years, the notification will be a one-time process, which can be easily done online. There are significant savings in administrative costs, which will be passed on to the industry. Unlike the existing factory registration, factory notification will be free of charge. This is expected to save businesses more than $3.5 million yearly, and will benefit some two-thirds of all factories. More details of the new system would be made available next month.
15 Not all factories are, however, included in this new factory notification scheme. Construction worksites, shipyards, metalworking companies, wafer fabrication, petrochemical, chemical and pharmaceutical plants will continue to be governed by the existing factory registration process in the mean time. These factories will still need to submit documents on their RM implementation as is required today. MOM will be strengthening our oversight of factories in these sectors where there are potentially more work hazards. We will be engaging these industries over the next few months to discuss a new registration framework. We hope to bring this group of factories under a new registration framework by June next year.
Conclusion
16 Our journey towards higher WSH standards will be challenging but one worth the effort. This year, we have seen 52 work-related deaths by the end of September, compared with 42 for the same period last year. It is clear that we cannot take safety for granted. We must all be constantly vigilant and do our part to ensure safety. However, with the commitment of all stakeholders to take safety to heart and act on it, I am confident that we can make Singapore a safer place to work. On this note, let me once again congratulate all award winners for their excellent safety performance. I wish you a great evening. Thank you.