[FC] TOPIC 6: Workplace Safety and Health Legislation

What is the Workplace Safety and Health Act?

• WSHA is an essential part of OSH (Occupational safety & health) framework to cultivate good safety habits in all individuals, so as to create a strong safety culture in workplaces.

• It requires stakeholders to take reasonably practicable measures to ensure the safety and health of persons at the workplace.

• It covers all workplaces, unless exempted.

  • Exempted persons include S’pore Armed Forces, Police Force, Prisons Service, Central Narcotics Bureau, Internal Security Dept, Immigration & Checkpoints Authority, Civil Defence Force

Workplace Safety and Health Act — 3 Principles

1. Reduce risk at the source by requiring all stakeholders to remove or minimise the risk they create.

2. Encourage industries to adopt greater ownership of safety and health outcomes.

3. Impose higher penalties for poor safety management and outcomes.

Workplace Safety and Health Act — 4 Key Features

1. Places responsibilities on stakeholders who have control in safety at the workplace.

2. Focuses on WSH systems & outcomes, rather than compliance.

3. Facilitates effective enforcement through the issuance of remedial orders.

4. Imposes higher penalties for non-compliance and risky behaviour.

Workplace Safety and Health Act — Definitions

• Workplace — Premises where people carry out work

• Factory — Any premises that carry out:

  • Making any article or part of any article

  • Altering, repairing, ornamenting, finishing, cleaning or washing of any article

  • Breaking up or demolition of any article

• Factories (eg. Manufacturing plants, car-servicing workshops, construction sites) need to be registered with MOM

Workplace Safety and Health Act — Reasonably Practicable

Workplace Safety and Health Act — Reasonably Practicable

• Aim of “Reasonably Practicable” is for stakeholders to keep trying to lower the likelihood and degree of harm until further steps are not reasonable in the circumstances.

• Reasonably practicable is determined objectively, not by the company’s capacity to pay.

  • Employers cannot expose people to a lower level of protection because it is in a lesser financial position than another company exposed to the same hazard.

  • If a company cannot afford to implement the needed risk control measure, it should not engage in the activity that gives rise to that risk.

• “The degree of risk in a particular situation that can be balanced against time, trouble, cost & physical difficulty of taking measures to avoid the risk.”

• An action is considered to be practicable when it is capable of being done.

• Reasonability takes into account:

  • Severity of any injury or harm

  • Likelihood of that injury/harm occurring

  • How much is known abt the hazard & ways of controlling it

  • Availability, suitability & cost of the safeguards

• Affordability is NOT A CONSIDERATION!!

  • Money must be spent on safeguard where there is risk of serious injury or frequent but less severe injury

• CANNOT claim “I don’t know what to do about _____ hazards”

  • When these hazards are widely known by others in the same industry

  • Where safeguards are in place elsewhere

Who are the stakeholders in the Workplace Safety and Health Act?

• Stakeholders include:

  • Employer

  • Principal

  • Occupier

  • Manufacturer / Supplier

  • Employee

  • Self-employed

Responsibility of Employers

• Employers — reasonably practicably protect the safety & health of employees / workers under their direction & persons affected by their work

• They must:

  • Conduct risk assessments to identify hazards and implement effective risk control measures.

  • Maintain a safe work environment.

  • Make sure adequate safety measures are taken for any machinery, equipment, plant, article or process used at the workplace.

  • Establish systems for dealing with emergencies.

  • Ensure workers are provided with sufficient instruction, training and supervision so that they can work safely.

Responsibility of Principal

• Principal is any person or organisation who engages another person or organisation to supply labour or perform work under a contract for service.

• They must reasonably practicably ensure any engaged contractor:

  • Is able to perform the work they are engaged for.

  • Has made sure that any machinery, equipment, plant, article or process that is used at work is safe.

• If the principal instructs workers on how the work is to be carried out, they will also have the employer-level duties for workers safety

Responsibility of Occupiers

• Occupier is the person who has control of the premises, regardless of whether they are the owner of those premises

  • For factories, it is the person who holds the certificate of registration for workplaces registered as “Factory”

• They must reasonably practicably ensure the safety of:

  • The workplace

  • All pathways to and from the place of work

  • Machinery, equipment, plants, articles and substances

  • (May be responsible) common areas used by employees / contractors

• Ensure the above does not pose a risk to anyone within their

  premises, including non-employees

Responsibility of Manufacturers / Suppliers

• Manufacturer/Supplier — ensure machinery & equipment or hazardous substances provided are safe

• They must:

  • Provide information on health hazards and how to safely use the machinery, equipment or hazardous substance.

  • Examine and test the machinery, equipment or hazardous substance to ensure that it is safe for use.

  • Provide results of any examinations or tests of the machinery, equipment or hazardous substances.

Responsibility of Employees

• Employees must:

  • Follow the workplace safety and health system, safe work procedures or safety rules implemented at the workplace

  • Not engage in any unsafe or negligent acts that may endanger themself or others working around them

  • Use PPE (personal protective equipment) provided to ensure their safety while working

    • Must not tamper with or misuse the PPE

Responsibility of Self-employed

• Self-employed persons must:

  • Take measures, as far as reasonable practicable, to ensure the safety and health of anyone in the workplace who may be affected by your work

Workplace Safety and Health Act — Power of WSH Inspector & Commissioners

• MOM inspectors can enter any workshop at any time to:

  • Inspect, examine & make copies of any documents

  • Take samples of any material or substance found in or being discharged from any workplace for the purpose of analysis or test

  • Take photographs / videos to record the conditions & the processes carried out

  • Take into custody any article in the workplace which is required for the purpose of an investigation or inquiry under the Act

• WSH commissioners can:

  • Suspense certificates (eg. Certification of Factory Registration)

  • Issue remedial orders

    • Orders to remove workplace risks or comply with safe work practice whether or not there is immediate dangers

  • Stop work orders

    • Specified work to cease until measures taken to ensure

      safety

    • When severe lapses in safety & health and/or immediate danger is found

Workplace Safety and Health Act — Irresponsibility Penalties

• Individual persons — up to $200,000 fine and/or 2 years imprisonment

• Corporate body — up to $500,000 fine

• Workers (failure to use PPE or misuse safety appliances) — 1st offence → up to $1,000 fine ; 2nd offence → up to $2,000 fine

Workplace Safety and Health Act — Incident Reporting

• The following must be reported to MOM:

  • Injury or death due to work-related/workplace accidents

    • Light duty or MC due to injury at work

  • Dangerous Occurrences

  • Occupational diseases

• Submit an incident report within these deadlines:

  • Fatal accidents: Within 10 days of the accident

  • Non-fatal accidents: Within 10 days of employer’s first notice of accident

• HOWEVER, if the employee subsequently dies from the injury or disease, you must notify the Commissioner immediately.

Workplace Safety and Health Act — Failure to Report Penalties

• 1st offence — Fine (up to $5,000)

• Subsequent offences — Fine (up to $10,000) and/or Jail (up to 6 months)