Singapore Law Blog

The Ministry Of Manpower presents the draft Workplace Safety and Health (General Provisions) Regulations, Workplace Safety and Health (First Aid) Regulations and Workplace Safety and Health (Registration of Factories) Regulations for consultation.

The Press Release is as follows:-

BACKGROUND

1. At the Committee of Supply Debate in March 2005, the Minister for Manpower noted that in order to raise occupational safety and health (OSH) standards to the next level of achievement, fundamental changes were required. He announced that a new Workplace Safety and Health (WSH) Act would be passed by the end of 2005 to reform the legislative framework for OSH in Singapore. A consultation process was held in August on the proposed WSH Bill, from which many important improvements to the draft were made. The Bill was tabled at Parliament for first reading on 17 October 2005, and is available at the following web address: [http://www.parliament.gov.sg/Legislation/Htdocs/Bills/050036.pdf]

2. The key emphases in the new framework for OSH in Singapore are:

(a) Reduce risks at source by making all stakeholders accountable for managing the risks they create. Stakeholders that create risks will be held accountable for managing and reducing those risks. Occupiers, employers, suppliers, manufacturers, designers and persons at work will have the responsibility of identifying potential risks and taking appropriate actions to mitigate risks at source.
(b) Promote industry ownership of OSH standards and outcomes. The prescriptive nature of the current Factories Act creates a mindset for management and employees to simply follow the "letter of the law" and not address safety aspects outside prescribed legislation. Given the pace of technological change and variable work processes in different industries, legislation will inevitably lag behind safety risks. Under the new framework, a performance-based approach will be adopted augmented with prescriptive guidance for hazardous sectors and activities, to promote greater industry ownership.
(c) Punish poor safety management through prosecution and other administrative measures. Currently, safety lapses resulting in mishaps are severely punished, but the penalties for offences in the absence of mishaps are comparatively lower. This encourages the industry to tolerate sub-optimal safety practices until accidents occur. MOM will impose greater financial disincentives and penalties on workplaces with unsafe systems, before any accident has occurred. This will create the right environment where all workplaces find it more cost effective to improve their safety management systems.

3. The new Workplace Safety and Health Act, when passed, will form the legislative backbone of the OSH framework, allocating responsibilities to stakeholders and setting out remedial measures (ie. remedial orders and stop-work orders) and penalties for non-compliance. To augment the Act, a number of Regulations will be passed.

WORKPLACE SAFETY AND HEALTH REGULATIONS

4. MOM now presents the draft Workplace Safety and Health (General Provisions) Regulations, Workplace Safety and Health (First Aid) Regulations and Workplace Safety and Health (Registration of Factories) Regulations for consultation.  

5. The contents of these 3 regulations were primarily extracted from the technical provisions of the Factories Act. While refinements to the requirements have been proposed in these Regulations, there are no major changes from that required under the Factories Act. The requirements will continue to apply to factories as in current arrangement. Nonetheless, we would still like to invite your comments on the draft regulations. The three regulations will be introduced together with the Workplace Safety and Health Act in 2006.

Workplace Safety and Health (General Provisions) Regulations

6. This proposed Workplace Safety and Health (General Provisions) Regulations contains the current technical provisions found in the Factories Act under Part IV (General Provisions relating to Health), Part V (General Provisions relating to Safety) and Part VII (Special Provisions relating to Health, Safety, Welfare). This Regulations would ensure that basic safety and health requirements remain in force even with the enactment of the new Workplace Safety and Health Bill (WSHB).

7. In transferring the requirements from the Factories Act to this Regulations, we have aligned it to the new liability regime of the WSHB to providegreater clarity on who is the duty holder. We have also removed some obsolete requirements such as those related to cast-iron underfired vulcaniser. There is no change in scope from the current Factories Act and the Regulations will apply only to workplaces defined by the Workplace Safety and Health Act to be a factory.

Workplace Safety and Health (First Aid) Regulations

8. This Regulations consolidate section 58 of the Factories Act with the current Factories (First-Aid) Regulations. There are no changes in the requirements relating to provisions of first-aid boxes, first-aider and first-aid room at the workplace. Broadly, occupiers have to provide sufficient first aid boxes, facilities and trained personnel so that they can effectively deal with any emergencies at the workplace. This Regulations will apply to workplaces (such as factories) which are currently required under the Factories Act to have the first aid facilities.

Workplace Safety and Health (Registration of Factories) Regulations

9. This Regulations build on the provisions under Part III of the current Factories Act, which requires any person who wish to operate a factory to register the premises as a factory prior to operation. There is no change in requirements for the registration of factories as well as fees for the registration.

Amendment of the Factories (Building Operations and Works of Engineering Construction) Regulations

10. In addition to the above regulations, MOM also presents the draft amendments to the Factories (BOWEC) Regulations for consultation. The amendments are proposed to implement the recommendations of the MND-MOM joint review committee on construction safety which was released earlier this year. Broadly the amendments covers the following areas:

(a) Duties on professional engineers undertaking temporary works regulated under BOWEC;
(b) Instituting regular site safety coordinating meeting; and
(c) Implementing permit-to-work system for selected work.

Scope of the consultation exercise

11. The purpose of this consultation exercise is to seek your views and comments on the proposed regulations.

Guidelines

12. To ensure that the consultation exercise is productive and successful, you are requested to follow these guidelines:

(a) Please identify yourself as well as the organization you represent (if any) so that we may follow-up to clarify any issues, if necessary.
(b) Make your comments clear and concise.
(c) Please use the prescribed template provided to help us understand your feedback better.
(d) Please explain your points with illustrations, examples, data or alternative formulations of the amendments as far as possible.

Period of Consultation

13. The period of public consultation is from 21 November to 16 December 2005. All comments received through the consultation exercise will be reviewed thoroughly and if accepted, will be incorporated in the regulations.