Singapore Law Blog

When the Workplace Safety and Health Act came into effect on 1 March 2006, 11 factories subsidiary legislation were repealed as most of them were transferred into the new WSH subsidiary legislation (e.g. WSH (General Provision) Regulations). However there are still 18 remaining factories subsidiary legislation that are still in force by virtue of section 67(14) of the Workplace Safety and Health Act. Please refer to Annex A for the list of 18 legislations. The Ministry will carry out the review of the subsidiary legislation in phases over the next few months to update and align the provisions to the new Workplace Safety and Health Act.

This includes:

a) Reviewing the original intent of the subsidiary legislation to establish whether it is still valid under the new regime;

b) Updating the provisions and make it less prescriptive, where possible;

c) Updating all relevant terminologies (e.g. from Chief Inspector to Commissioner);

d) Clarifying the intended duty holder for the provision; and

e) Introducing offences and penalties provisions for the breach within the Regulations.

3. As part of the review, the Ministry will conduct industry consultation on all draft regulations. MOM now presents 3 draft regulations for consultation. They are:

a) Workplace Safety and Health (Construction) Regulations;

b) Workplace Safety and Health (Workplace Safety and Health Officers) Regulations; and

c) Workplace Safety and Health (Workplace Safety and Health Auditors) Regulations.

Workplace Safety and Health (Construction) Regulations

4. This draft Regulations will replace the Factories (Building Operations and Works of Engineering Construction) Regulations. The major policy changes reflected in this draft includes:

a) Requiring all worksites to implement a safety and health management system. However, it is no longer prescribed or limited to the 14 elements currently within the law. Instead, the format of the safety and health management system will be outlined based on prevailing codes of practices that can be updated regularly;

b) Implementing the recommendations of the MOM-MND Joint Review committee which includes:

i. Duties on Professional Engineers undertaking temporary works;

ii. Requiring safety and health training for all supervisors;

iii. Instituting regular site safety coordinating meetings; and

iv. Implementing permit-to-work system for selected work

c) Removal of prescriptive provisions from the legislation which would be transferred into codes of practices to serve as guidelines for the industry.

Workplace Safety and Health (Workplace Safety and Health Officers) Regulations

5. This draft Regulations will replace the Factories (Qualifications and Training of Safety Officers) Notification, the Factories (Registration and Duties of Safety Officers) Regulations and the Factories (Safety Officers) Order.

6. In this draft Regulations, we have retained the mandatory appointment of a WSH officer for selected factories, but we have removed the distinction between a part-time and a full-time WSH officer. Under this proposed revision, factories listed in the First Schedule are expected to appoint a WSH officer to help manage their workplace safety and health risks. The focus is to be more outcome-based. Industry can decide the extent of appointment (i.e. either part time or full time) based on their needs, in line with the less prescriptive regime to engender greater industry ownership. Overtime, we will also review the mandatory appointment.

7. In addition, we do not intend to prescribe the qualifications of the WSH Officers in the Regulations. They will, instead, be promulgated as administrative guidelines with inputs from the industry. This is to allow greater flexibility to update the qualifications and promote industry self-regulation.

8. The duties of the WSH Officers have also been simplified to focus more on management of safety and health risks at the workplace. With the transition to a performance-based regime under the new Workplace Safety and Health Act, occupiers and employers are expected to take reasonably practicable measures to ensure the safety and health of persons affected. Based on this outcome-based approach, it will not be necessary to regulate the functional duties of the WSH Officers (e.g. to act as secretary to the safety committee, etc) and other provisions (e.g. permitting the WSH Officers to attend courses).

Workplace Safety and Health (Workplace Safety and Health Auditors) Regulations

9. This is a new Regulations intended to strengthen the safety and health auditing regime. It consolidates the requirements for audit into a single Regulations including specifying which classes of workplaces are required to implement safety and health management systems (SMS).

10. Beyond the current mandatory audit requirement for the SMS of specified workplaces, the audits will no longer be limited to the SMS, but is expected to include risk assessments, work processes or the workplace itself as provided under section 30 of the Workplace Safety and Health Act. Another new point stated in the draft Regulations is the duties and powers of the WSH Auditors.

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The period of public consultation is from 27 September to 31 October 2006. All comments received through the consultation exercise will be reviewed thoroughly and, if accepted, will be incorporated in the regulations.