PUBLISHED ONMay 29, 2026 2:23 PMBYShafiq ApandiA safety inspection at a construction site for a two-storey terrace house in Thomson Green on Friday (May 29) uncovered a string of safety lapses that exposed workers to serious injuries.
AsiaOne followed Ministry of Manpower (MOM) inspectors on the site visit and observed unguarded openings, building materials placed near unprotected edges, unguarded machinery, and cluttered walkways, among other lapses.
There was also no safe evacuation route for workers in an emergency.
The house being built includes an attic, but it was deemed too dangerous for the inspectors to access. The temporary staircase leading to the attic did not provide adequate footing and anyone who slipped risked sliding towards exposed rebars.
"On the findings today, we will certainly take the necessary enforcement actions," said Audrina Chua, director of MOM's occupational safety and health inspectorate.
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These could take the form of notices of non-compliance and composition fines.
The ministry is also considering a stop-work order that would require the contractor to rectify the hazards before work can resume.
Refresher training will also be required for the workers and project manager, Chua said, so that they "can really take care of safety moving forward".
The number of safety breaches has yet to be finalised; officers said they will review the drone footage.
The safety inspection on Friday comes amid a renewed clampdown on the construction sector. On May 19, MOM and the Workplace Safety and Health Council called for a voluntary safety time-out across the industry from 20 May to 3 June 2026, after two fatal accidents at construction sites earlier in the month.
A banksman was struck by a falling concrete section during hacking work, and a site supervisor was struck by pallets of bricks after the canopy structure he was sitting on gave way. MOM said both deaths were clearly preventable.
A safety time-out means taking a brief pause from work, especially when there are spikes in workplace incidents or emerging risks.
"It was quite concerning for us, especially since we had quite good performance last year," Chua said.
MOM is also ramping up inspections in high-risk sectors, with a particular focus on smaller worksites such as the Thomson Green one. Such sites accounted for more than 60 per cent of the construction sector's fatal cases last year, Chua noted.
Officers are aided by technology during inspections, using drones to survey sites deemed unsafe for access.
The drones also let officers cover a broad area efficiently, useful for smaller worksites that tend to be clustered together, without having to deploy multiple personnel.
The renewed push follows a strong 2025 for workplace safety. MOM's annual work safety and health report, released on March 25, showed Singapore's workplace fatal injury rate fell to a record low of 0.96 per 100,000 workers, among the safest in the world, down from 1.2 in 2024, when there were 43 workplace deaths.
Even so, 36 workers died on the job last year. Vehicular incidents remained the top cause, claiming 15 lives, followed by falls from height and the collapse or failure of structures and equipment. Together the three accounted for 28 deaths, or 78 per cent of the total.
Construction logged the most fatalities of any sector at 12, ahead of manufacturing's seven. There were also 660 major injuries, a rate of 17.7 per 100,000 workers.
The 2025 report was also the first to capture platform worker injuries, following the Platform Workers Act that came into force last year. Two platform workers were among the dead and 74 suffered major injuries, giving them a combined fatal-and-major injury rate of 84.6 per 100,000 — far above the national average. To address the road risks they face, MOM has formed a Platform Worker Safety Workgroup with government agencies, platform companies and NTUC.
For the construction sector, Chua's message is clear: "We want the industry to really pay attention, review their risk assessments, safe work procedures, and also remind their workers to pay attention to safety and health."
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shafiq.apandi@asiaone.com
