Speech at 2nd Reading of The Workplace Safety and Health (Amendment) Bill 2008

Mr Gan Kim Yong, Minister of State (Education and Manpower)

MOS: Mr Speaker, Sir, I beg to move, "That the Bill be read a second time."

Mr Speaker: The Question is, "That the Bill be now read a second time."

MOS's 2nd Reading Speech

Background

1.   Sir, in 2005, the Ministry of Manpower outlined plans to revamp our national workplace safety and health (or WSH) framework to achieve a significant reduction in workplace related injuries and deaths.  Integral to this new framework, would be the set-up of a formal structure to bring in industry partnership to jointly lead the effort to improve workplace safety. Workplace safety systems around the World have shown that better safety standards can only be achieved if stakeholders from industry are engaged. To phase-in industry partnership, we started with the formation of the WSH Advisory Committee. This has worked out well, as I will outline later. This amendment Bill takes industry partnership to improve workplace safety to a higher level by elevating the Committee into a full-fledged Council with executive powers.

Achievements by the WSH Advisory Committee

2.   Since its inception in 2005, the Advisory Committee has been effective in fostering  industry ownership and building capabilities to manage WSH. The Committee introduced bizSAFE, a compliance assistance programme for SMEs with more than 350 companies already signed on. The Committee engaged over 150,000 stakeholders in 2007 through the various platforms to spread the WSH message and garnered over 52,000 pledges in support of the WSH 2015 framework strategy. 

Formation of WSH Council

3.   To allow industry partnership a greater and more effective role in driving improvements in safety standards, and building a safety culture in Singapore,  It is therefore timely for the WSH Advisory Committee to be elevated to a full-fledged Workplace Safety and Health Council. Appropriately, the amendments in the WSH Act will provide more autonomy, executive powers and with more resources allocated to it to realise the WSH 2015 strategy.

4.    The Council will include members from key sectors such as construction, petrochemicals and logistics, to ensure that its views are balanced and representative. The Council will also bring in other relevant stakeholders such as the public sector, the unions and academia. 

Role and Functions of Council

5.   MOM has consulted extensively in scoping the role and functions of the Council. A significant function that the Council will take on is the setting of industry standards via codes of practice. Codes of practice serve to provide practical guidance to stakeholders on how the required safety standards can be met and cover diverse areas such as scaffolds, work in confined spaces and the safe use of forklifts.

6.   These Codes are currently issued by the Commissioner. However, with intimate knowledge of the constraints and challenges on the ground, industry leaders represented on the Council are better placed to guide the development of  "reasonably practicable" measures that stakeholders can implement to reduce and manage risk. The Council will also take the lead to promote the adoption and implementation of these codes of practice within industry.  Accordingly, sections 40B and 40C of the amended Act will transfer the power to issue, approve, amend, or revoke WSH codes of practice from the Commissioner to the Council.

7.   The Council will also take on executive functions in the areas of industry capability building and WSH promotion. The Council will administer and review the effectiveness of existing programmes and develop new programmes to improve WSH performance. In addition, the Council will be establishing new research capabilities to look into WSH trends and developments, so that it can formulate appropriate industry responses.

Enforcement Provisions

8.   We have also taken this opportunity to clarify two specific provisions of the WSH Act, based on our experience of operating under the Act over the past two years. Section 41 of the current Act only allows MOM inspectors to seize documents kept at the workplace. As a result, inspectors technically do not have access to relevant documents that may be kept offsite or compel the persons in possession of such materials to produce them. The amended section 41 will allow MOM inspectors to have access to all relevant documents and information regardless of their location.

9.   The second amendment pertains to section 48¹.  It makes explicit reference to the liability of corporate officers where offences are committed by a body corporate and of individual partners where offences are committed by a partnership. There is some ambiguity over whether or not officers of corporate entities that enter into a partnership can be held accountable for safety lapses under section 48. The amended section will address this ambiguity to allow MOM to hold such officers liable.

Conclusion

10.   Our efforts on workplace safety and health have shown encouraging progress, with the workplace fatality rate falling from 4.9 per 100,000 workers in 2004 to 2.9 in 2007.  The strong industry support, whether in terms of participation in WSH programmes, industry sponsorship for WSH events or feedback on WSH policies, has been a key contributing factor. Moving forward, our continued success on the WSH front will depend on the strength of the partnership between industry and the community. The establishment of the Council will strengthen industry's ownership and cement the partnership to create a healthier and safer work environment for Singaporeans.

11.   Sir, I beg to move.