Speech at Keppel’s Safety Campaign 2009
Mr Hawazi Daipi , Senior Parliamentary Secretary , Keppel Shipyard Pte Ltd
Mr Choo Chiau Beng, CEO, Keppel Corporation Pte Ltd
Mr Tong Chong Heong, CEO, Keppel Offshore & Marine
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Good afternoon.
Introduction
I am happy to join you today at Keppel's Safety Campaign 2009. It is encouraging to witness the Keppel group's consistent and good efforts to strengthen safety ownership and raise safety awareness across all your business units. Keppel's campaign theme this year “Safety starts with me – Together we care” aptly puts across each individual's responsibility for his own workplace safety as well as the need to care for the safety and health of his co-workers.
Focusing on the marine sector
2. This is the mindset that my Ministry and the Workplace Safety and Health Council hope to engender across all industries, including the marine sector. This sector was highlighted as a priority area under the new national plan WSH 2018. There are two main reasons for this special focus. First, the marine sector had witnessed good growth which translates to a high level of work activity and an increase in its worker population. In 2008, the total employment in the marine industry was about 140,900, up from about 82,600 in 2005. A large proportion of these workers are new to the sector. Despite the current downturn, the marine sector expects to continue recruiting more workers and to grow its business when the economy recovers. To ensure that these workers can work safely and contribute effectively to the sector's growth, it is important that the marine sector puts in place strong safety practices. On this point, I am pleased to note that the Keppel Offshore and Marine group has consistently placed strong emphasis on implementing safety measures for all its workers.
3. The second reason for the focus on the marine sector is its current safety and health performance. The industry went through a rocky ride last year in terms of safety. It lost 13 people to work accidents last year compared to 11 in 2007. This accounts for 20% of all workplace fatalities. The overall fatality rate for the sector also increased from 8.4 to 9.2 per 100,000 employees. This year, there were seven deaths in the sector as of end May. It is evident that more needs to be done.
4. Despite the challenges of high workload and new workers, I am confident that the marine sector can do better in safety and health. The leaders in the industry have the dedication and the commitment towards safeguarding the safety and health of its workers. It has initiated many new efforts that can be considered best practices. For example, the Association of Singapore Marine Industries (ASMI) initiated an unprecedented time-out following the spate of marine accidents last year. Going forward, I believe that there are three key levers that will pave the way ahead for the sector - strengthening contractor and stakeholder management, training, and leadership commitment.
Strengthen contractor and stakeholder management system
5. The first lever lies in strengthening contractor and stakeholder management. A shipyard is a dynamic environment with many stakeholders involved in various types of work. Keppel Shipyard, for example, has over 10,000 direct and indirect employees. These involve various groups such as ship owners, ship crew and subcontractors. Accidents can happen if any individual within any of these groups does not practise safety. Recent accidents in the industry show that better contractor management is critical. In one accident, a shipyard worker with over 30 years' experience was killed by a cable that fell during a lifting activity. The activity was carried out by a ship's crew. Shipyard personnel were not directly involved in the lifting work though the activity took place on the yard's premises. Another recent incident involved a worker who died from injuries sustained when working in a bucket of a boom lift. Preliminary investigations suggest that the boom lift hoisting mechanism had failed. The operation and work done during this incident was managed by the shipyard's subcontractor. From these cases, it is clear that shipyards must make safety a key part of business operations and establish close partnerships with the ship owners and subcontractors that you work with.
6. The importance of stakeholder management will be highlighted in the draft marine sectoral plan that MOM and the WSH Council are now working on. In particular, one of the initiatives to improve stakeholder management is to achieve 100% implementation of risk management across all marine subcontractors and smaller shipyards within the next three years. To attain this, we will leverage on bizSAFE, which is a WSH Council programme to help companies establish risk management capability. We hope to get all large and medium-size shipyards to pledge as bizSAFE partners so that their SME subcontractors can also come on board the programme to facilitate the implementation of risk management.
7. I am pleased to share that we have a very good start with bizSAFE partners Keppel Shipyard, Keppel FELS and Keppel Singmarine. As a Bizsafe partner, Keppel has provided its subcontractors with safety training and stewardship, aligning them with Keppel's safety programmes. They have trained more than 2,500 subcontractors in its safety leadership programme and more than 8,000 subcontract workers in the safety promoter scheme. In addition, by the end of this year, the companies will only work with subcontractors that have fully implemented risk management and attained bizSAFE level 3. This will be incorporated within the shipyards' procurement framework and will bring on board more than 300 marine subcontractors. I am confident that this move will raise the safety standards in the shipyards. Such safety requirements for your subcontractors will also apply to other stakeholders such as ship owners. We will be working closely with the industry on other initiatives under the sectoral plan to better manage safety with all the stakeholder groups.
Better training to enhance safety management
8. The second key lever is the enhancement of workforce competencies through training. Raising the capabilities of WSH professionals, supervisors and workers will help to ensure that safety matters on the ground are well managed. Good training is especially critical to help new entrants to the marine sector manage hazards in their daily work. Currently, we have safety training and certification requirements for all shipyard workers. New workers have to undergo and pass a basic safety orientation course before they can start work. Existing workers are required to pass a re-certification test every few years to ensure that they are kept abreast on safety matters. We want to build on this and aim to get every marine worker to go through more comprehensive safety training to enhance their capabilities to work safely. This will be done both at the sectoral and company levels.
9. At the sectoral level, ASMI aims to set up a marine industry training centre by 2010. This one-stop training centre will develop course syllabus to ensure consistent and quality training across industry as well as provide trade-specific and broad based skills for marine workers. One of the key training programmes will run courses on 13 trade-specific competencies. I am glad to learn that 1,000 workers have already benefited from these trade-specific courses. With the centre, more will benefit. Half of the 1,000 graduates so far are from Keppel. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Keppel Offshore & Marine group for your strong support in this initiative.
10. I am also pleased to witness a preview of the new Safety Training Complex for Keppel's workers today. This complex will become a leading integrated safety training centre not only for Keppel's workforce but also for its subcontractors to develop their competencies in safety. It is also encouraging to know that Keppel's customers have given strong support to safety in the shipyards as well as this initiative by being involved in the design and development of the training complex. I understand that teaching methods will closely engage participants through the use of simulated work conditions and environment. Being able to experience “real-life” work conditions, workers can better appreciate the WSH hazards associated with their work activities and the rationale of putting in place safety measures and procedures at work. The complex will help to fulfill Keppel's goal to raise safety competency and ownership of all its workers and subcontractors who walk through its gates. Both direct workers and subcontractors will receive essential training for free at the complex.
Leadership commitment and industry ownership
11. The third key lever, and also the most important, will spell the success or failure of various safety initiatives I have mentioned. This key driving factor is the consistent leadership commitment to safety. On this front, I am heartened by the industry's commitment to halve its fatality rate in five years and to reduce it to less than 1.8 fatalities per 100,000 workers by 2018. In addition, the major shipyards, including the Keppel Offshore and Marine group, have committed to put in place programmes to strive for zero injuries.
12. At today's event, I witness the strong commitment shown by Keppel's top management to enhance safety ownership at all levels. This is indeed a strong signal for the group and bodes well for your safety journey. But what is critical is that you must stay the course and not waver from this very important commitment to the safety of every worker who works within your workplaces. Strong management commitment can bring you to a higher level of performance but it is your perseverance and unwavering commitment that will bring the company to world-class performance in workplace safety and health. Such an aspiration is aligned to your business objective of building a world class company.
Conclusion
13. In conclusion, let me thank Keppel for your continued support and commitment in elevating safety and health standards to greater heights. Your pledge to champion safety, to persist in your safety efforts and to bring all your stakeholders on board is indeed laudable. I urge you to aspire towards the day when Keppel Group can say that every single project by Keppel was completed with zero loss time injury. This will indeed be something to look forward to and be proud of. I wish you every success as you work towards achieving one of the best safety records not only in Singapore but also globally. Thank you.