More workplace deaths, injuries despite stepped-up safety drive

SINGAPORE- Despite ramped-up efforts to curb the number of workplace accidents, fatalities and injuries at workplaces still rose in the first half of this year.

There were 30 deaths at work between January and June - an average of more than one a week, and five more compared with the same period last year.

This comes after a three-year decline in fatalities, according to the latest statistics from the Workplace Safety and Health (WSH) Institute released yesterday.

The construction sector was the main culprit, accounting for 17 deaths, followed by the transportation and storage sectors, where six workers lost their lives.

Falls (nine cases) and being struck by moving objects (four cases) were the most common killers across all industries.

Workplace injuries also climbed to 6,284 cases in the first half of the year, up from 5,522 in the same period last year - a 14 per cent increase.

"Despite having put in place various processes and systems, our workplace safety and health performance for the first half of 2014 has not improved," said WSH Council chairman Lee Tzu Yang in a statement.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said that "stepped-up enforcement is currently ongoing".

The ministry has broadened its criteria so poor-performing companies are more likely to be placed under surveillance, which means they are inspected more frequently and have to develop plans to improve. It is also reviewing its demerit point system, where companies which accumulate too many points for lapses face penalties.

Mr Hooi Yu Koh, chief executive and managing director of construction company Kori Holdings, said the industry is paying more attention to training new foreign workers. "In our company, we also focus on retaining experienced workers because they tend to be more safety-conscious," he said.

Four workers died in work-related traffic incidents, down from 11 in the first half of last year.

There were 249 non-fatal injuries, the first time data was recorded for this category after the MOM made it compulsory in January for all work-related traffic accidents to be reported.

The other bright spot was the fall in occupational diseases in the first half of the year to 423 cases, down from 474.

This was largely because fewer people suffered from noise- induced deafness, which accounts for more than half of all cases of occupational disease here.

This article was first published on 11/09, 2014.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.