Dear Editor,
It is heartening to note the concern of Manpower Ministry's WSH Commissioner Mr Ho Siong Hin over injuries of workers "despite there being many lessons in the past" and the importance for stakeholders' planning vigilance as well as workers' personal safety conduct.
Yet, the increase in overall injuries especially in the construction, marine and manufacturing sectors should raise the red flag on whether more could be done to mitigate against risk of harm and injury to workers.
For instance, in the marine sector, it is a well known fact that vessels coming into port for maintenance and repair work often have to stick to a tight schedule which poor planning and a supply of inadequate number of workers give marine engineering companies undue pressure on the deadline for completion.
This leads to workers having to toil round the clock with little time for adequate rest to recover. With such relentless physical assertion demanded on the human body, the level of alertness inevitably declines and accidents are waiting to happen.
Similarly with the construction sector, almost without exception, injured workers whom Healthserve have seen and helped, spoke of having to work an average of ten to twelve hours per day with no rest days in between just to earn a few dollars more as they are saddled with huge debts to pay off.
If there seems to be many lessons from the past, it is obvious that stakeholders and employers are slow to learn them. That productivity will increase in tandem with workers' general well-being does not seem to feature at all in the greedy pursuit of mammon at the expense of workers' health and safety concerns.
Are human lives so cheap and expendable? Surely, this is not acceptable. As Mr Ho noted, "checks are not enough" but neither is it enough that "each individual needs to feel personally motivated to work safely" as workers surely do not enjoy equal powers with employers.
Vincent Law
Director, Community Health Resource
Healthserve
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The above letter by Mr Law was sent to the mainstream newspapers as a reply to media reports on this media release by the WSH Council and the Ministry for Manpower.
Mr Law's letter has not been published by the mainstream press.