SIX more industries will be put under the Workplace Safety and Health Act from next month, to bring down the number of accidents at work.
Aside from the construction, shipbuilding and manufacturing sectors now under the Act, the additional six will be the hotels and food and beverage, health care, veterinary medicine, water and waste management, transport, and landscape care and maintenance sectors.
Being under the Act means these businesses will have to log all accidents - even minor ones and near misses, investigate the causes and show the measures taken to prevent similar mishaps.
Besides accidents and mishaps, the construction, shipbuilding and manufacturing sectors must also report workplace-induced health problems, like hearing loss.
The Act also requires employers to report to the Commissioner of Workplace Safety and Health when a worker is admitted to hospital, or given three or more days of medical leave.
Senior Parliamentary Secretary (Manpower) Hawazi Daipi announced the move yesterday while at the King Albert Park branch of McDonald's, which has a workplace safety programme in place.
The person found responsible for safety lapses could be fined up to $200,000, jailed two years, or both.
The company can also be fined up to $500,000 for first-time offenders. Fines are doubled for second offenders.
The rules will apply to all workplaces by 2011, said a Manpower Ministry spokesman.
She explained that the six industries were picked this time as they had higher accident rates and potential hazards than other service industries.
Cases involving 'less serious' workplace injuries went up 20 per cent to 4,743 in the first half of last year, with a quarter from transport and storage, wholesale and retail and hotel and restaurant sectors.
Across the manufacturing, shipbuilding and construction industries over that period, there were 25 work-related deaths, said the Workplace Safety and Health Advisory Committee.
This year, two people have already died in construction-industry sites.
Mr Hawazi noted that although the fatality rate is 'about the same' as the same time last year, 'it is still two too many'.
In 2004, the Government announced a 10-year plan to halve the number of work-related fatalities to 2.5 for every 100,000 workers.
The figure in 2004 was 4.9 per 100,000 workers. In 2006, it had fallen to 3.1.
