Speech at bizSAFE Convention 2010

Mr. Gan Kim Yong, Minister for Manpower, Orchard Hotel

Mr. Heng Chiang Gnee, Deputy Chairman, WSH Council

Members of the Workplace Safety and Health Council and Committees

bizSAFE Community members

Industry and company leaders,

Ladies and gentlemen,

Good morning.

I am pleased to join you today at the Workplace Safety & Health Council’s 2nd bizSAFE Convention. When I attended the Convention last year, there were 500 participants. Today, we see a 40% increase to over 700 participants. The greater interest and involvement of industry partners is encouraging. It bodes well for our national journey towards world class WSH standards.

Our national WSH performance

2. Since we reformed our national OSH framework in January 2005, we have made good progress. Our work fatality rate fell from 4.9 per 100,000 employees in 2004 to 2.9 in 2009. The current rate of 2.9 is amongst the best in the Asian region. However, in the last three years, our national work fatality rate has hovered around 2.8 and 2.9. A total of 70 workers lost their lives in workplace accidents last year, up from 67 in 2008. The vast improvements made in the earlier years of 2004 to 2007 appear to have hit a plateau.

3. All stakeholders must do their part - to exercise vigilance and responsibility in preventing the unnecessary loss of lives. We need a more innovative approach to strengthen both our enforcement and engagement measures to improve workplace safety, and safeguard the interests of the workers. Achieving greater improvements in Singapore’s WSH performance is a constant challenge but my Ministry and the WSH Council are fully committed to this. Today, I will highlight two key focus areas where we will implement new measures to further improve WSH standards.

Tightening control over higher risk workplaces

4. The first area is the tightening of controls over higher risk workplaces. These include construction worksites, shipyards, metal working factories and petrochemical plants. These workplaces account for more than two-thirds of workplace fatalities every year. Over the years, MOM has put in place many measures to monitor the WSH performance of such workplaces but we can do more. Going forward, we will tighten the control at the point of registration before these workplaces can commence work.

Enhanced factory registration scheme for higher risk workplaces from 1 March

5. From 1 March 2010, my Ministry will introduce an enhanced factory registration scheme for higher risk sectors¹. These workplaces will need to declare their risk management implementation status before they can start to operate. Within two months of commencement of business operations, they will also need to submit an audit or review report of their WSH Management System to MOM. This will ensure that the owners and operators of these workplaces take greater ownership of WSH outcomes once they meet the requirements upfront. These factories will not need to renew their registration annually and this is expected to save businesses like construction sites and shipyards $1.7 million annually. They are, however, expected to ensure their WSH systems are maintained and kept up-to-date. MOM will take action against those who act irresponsibly and put their workers at risk.

6. For workplaces such as oil refineries and petrochemical plants which work with highly flammable and hazardous materials on a daily basis, additional measures will be in place. Before their certificate of registration can be issued, they will have to undergo an MOM inspection. They will also need to renew their factory registration every five years. At the point of renewal, the Ministry will conduct checks on the Process Hazard Analysis (PHA) for such factories. The PHA is used by the process industry to ensure that all process hazards are properly identified and measures implemented to manage them. MOM’s checks will look at whether the factory’s PHA on its key processes remains up-to-date and relevant.

Strengthening industry ownership in these higher risk sectors

7. Sustaining strong WSH management in these workplaces is critical and we need strong industry ownership for this. Each and every company must take it upon themselves to ensure that their WSH systems and processes are in place and their employees well trained to manage WSH concerns. MOM will, therefore, work actively with the WSH Council and key players in these higher risk sectors to engender greater industry ownership.

8. I am encouraged by the good initiatives that have been rolled out by the industry so far. A pioneer group of about 50 marine and construction CEOs have committed to achieving zero injuries. And just last year, the marine industry launched a new self-regulatory programme called Marine Industry Safety Engagement Team or MindSET. I hope to see a similar proactive approach taken by the other industry sectors as well. The WSH Council has also formed a new Chemical Industries Committee last year to champion sector-specific initiatives to raise the WSH management capabilities, especially for the smaller set-ups, service providers and subcontractors in this industry. These initiatives will help to spur greater industry ownership towards taking charge of their own WSH outcomes.

Focusing on SMEs and helping them improve WSH standards

9. The second area that I will talk about is our focus on helping Small and Medium Enterprises or SMEs improve their WSH standards. This is the focus of today’s bizSAFE Convention. With over 140,000 SMEs in Singapore employing at least 60% of the total workforce, improving SMEs’ WSH management is critical if we want to keep our workers safe and healthy.

10. More than half of the work fatalities are employees of SMEs. We keep seeing recurrence of accidents that are not new. Because of their scale, SMEs may not appreciate the importance of WSH management before an accident actually happens and do not have the benefit of lessons learnt from past mistakes. Therefore, we need to reach out and engage more SMEs, get them on board WSH early and ensure that they put in place proper systems and processes to prevent work accidents.

Involving the buyers of SME services

11. There are two ways we can go about getting more SMEs on board the WSH journey. First is to ensure that the buyers of SME services take on a bigger role in ensuring safety. In MOM’s investigations of work accidents, there have been cases where buyers or stakeholders higher up the value chain neglected their responsibilities on the safety front. They did not engage their SME subcontractors to ensure that work would be carried out safely. This is not desirable. Whilst work can be out-sourced, the duties of occupiers and principals to ensure safe outcomes from work cannot be outsourced, especially in cases where the occupiers and principals are aware of the type of work being carried out and have the capacity to control the work involved. They have the responsibility to hire the right SME for the job and ensure that it can carry out the work competently and safely.

12. The responsibility to ensure safety at work falls on all parties – occupiers, principals, sub-contractors and even individuals. For instance, in one actual case in June 2006 involving a worker killed by a fallen load from an excavator at a construction site, investigations found that multiple stakeholders were responsible. The main occupier which was in charge of the site failed to check that its contractor had properly maintained the excavator in question. The contractor did not ensure adequate maintenance of the excavator and did not use the appropriate parts for the excavator. The employer of the worker, a subcontractor, failed to put in place proper safe work procedures to protect the workers involved in the job. As a result of these multiple failings, a worker died. If anyone of them had done their job, the accident could have been prevented. My Ministry took all three parties to task, and they were fined a total of $260,000. This example illustrates my Ministry’s intent to ensure that the entire chain of stakeholders take their respective safety responsibilities seriously.

13. Everyone has a critical part to play. Those higher up on the work chain can make a significant difference to how safety is regarded in a particular workplace or job, and influence the WSH practices of their suppliers down the line. I am glad to know that many are now doing so. This can be seen in the 40 bizSAFE partners that have made bizSAFE Level 3, or the implementation of risk management, a contract requirement. These include the major shipyards, some government agencies and all 16 town councils. This is an encouraging start. I am also pleased to note that many of these large companies or buyers do not leave it to their subcontractors to work things out. They ran free workshops for their SME subcontractors to learn about risk management.

14. bizSAFE partner Sankyu Singapore, for example, has made bizSAFE Level 3 a requirement for its SMEs and is helping all of them to achieve this milestone. For a logistics company like Sankyu where every component in the entire supply chain is critically linked, there is a risk of business discontinuity if any part of this chain is broken due to safety issues. One of Sankyu’s SME subcontractors, TNL Express, is progressing towards bizSAFE Level 3. The company highlighted that its commitment to work safely not only enhances business continuity, it has also enhanced its reputation for being safe. Managing Director of TNL Express Mr Teng Keok Ming attributed a 10 to 15 % business growth to its participation in the bizSAFE programme.

15. The involvement of the buyers will send a clear message to the SMEs. As WSH increasingly becomes a core part of any business operations, SMEs need to understand that taking efforts to keep workers safe is an integral part of their business strategy for growth and sustainability. I hope to see more buyers and SMEs benefit from better WSH standards and practices.

Assistance for SMEs

16. Second, besides involving the buyers of SME services, my Ministry recognises the need to provide assistance to SMEs to help them improve WSH standards and build their WSH capabilities. In this regard, I am happy to share that we have several programmes in place which SMEs can tap on.

17. For example, the WSH Council’s bizSAFE programme provides a step-by-step approach to guide SMEs in building Risk Management (RM) and Safety Management System (SMS) capabilities. SMEs can also tap on the $13 million Risk Management Assistance Fund (RMAF) introduced in 2006. RMAF has been well received and so far, more than 1,600 SMEs have successfully applied for the Fund with close to $10 million already committed. I urge the SMEs here today to tap on bizSAFE and RMAF to upgrade their WSH capabilities.

18. On this aspect, I am pleased to know that the WSH Council has offered 200 SME bosses the opportunity to take up a complimentary bizSAFE Level 1 workshop at today’s Convention. This is conducted in both English and Mandarin to cater to the large group of Mandarin-speaking SME bosses. I hope that these SMEs will go beyond today’s workshop and continue their WSH journey towards bizSAFE Level star eventually.

Conclusion

19. Let me conclude by reiterating the need for all stakeholder groups to be fully committed towards WSH. The mindset shift to treat WSH as a core part of any business strategy and operations is necessary for us to achieve WSH excellence. On this note, let me thank the WSH Council and the 4,500 members of the bizSAFE community for their contributions towards WSH. I am confident that, with your continued support and commitment, we can raise workplace safety and health towards new heights. I wish all of you a fulfilling Convention. Thank you.

¹ For details, please refer to the MOM Media release on the Enhanced factory registration scheme.