The following article was published in the Straits Times on 16 September 2010.
S'pore inks work safety declaration
By Maria Almenoar
Straits Times, Sep 16, 2010
THE Workplace Safety and Health (WSH) Council yesterday joined more than 200 organisations from around the world in signing a declaration to create safe and healthy work environments.
The organisations, consisting mainly of national-level agencies and large companies like Hyundai and LG, also committed to the understanding that preventing workplace accidents is of utmost importance.
The document, the Seoul Declaration For Safety And Health At Work, was inked at the inaugural Singapore Workplace Safety and Health Conference.
The event, which was held at Suntec Convention Centre, attracted more than 700 delegates who are here to discuss best practices on workplace safety.
Every year, about two million people around the world die or are hurt in work-related incidents and diseases.
Singapore now clocks in at 2.9 deaths for every 100,000 workers, and aims to bring down the rate to under 1.8 fatalities per 100,000 workers by 2018.
WSH Council chairman Lee Tzu Yang said the declaration represents a commitment by the stakeholders here - businesses, unions, professionals and the Government - to bring down the fatality rate.
'It does this in a very public and very open way. It represents our willingness to come out and say what we are going to do in the future,' he said on the sidelines of the conference.
Senior Minister S. Jayakumar, the guest of honour at the event, cited bizSafe as an effective programme that encourages small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to look out for and deal with workplace risks.
More than 150 larger firms, as bizSafe partners, have pledged to appoint only SMEs with bizSafe ratings for sub-contracting jobs, he said.
Professor Jayakumar also noted that the WSH Council had changed tack and was now focusing on achieving outcomes, rather than on prescribing set measures.
For example, the former Factories Act used to dictate that factory windows be 10 per cent of the floor area. Now, companies are free to decide how they want to achieve good ventilation, such as by adopting suction fans.
