Keynote Address by Mr Chee Hong Tat, Minister for Transport, at SMRT Contractors’ Safety Forum 2024

1.     Good afternoon everyone. It is my pleasure to join you here at the SMRT Contractors’ Safety Forum 2024. I am very happy to see that the transport industry is taking the initiative to improve the safety and health of our workers.

2.     Let me begin with where we are today in Workplace Safety and Health, and talk about our priorities going forward to improve workplace safety and health for the transport sector.

3.     Singapore achieved the Workplace Safety and Health 2028 Vision target of a workplace fatal injury rate of less than 1 per 100,000 workers for the first time¹ in 2023. At 0.99 per 100,000 workers, this is an encouraging step in the right direction, compared to 1.3 per 100,000 workers in the year before.

4.     If we look more broadly at workplace injuries, we have also seen improvements in non-fatal major and minor injuries.

a.     The average workplace major and minor injury rate for the transport and logistics sector in 2023 was 31.3 and 1,066 cases per 100,000 workers respectively, down from 45 and 1,159 in 2022.

b.     For SMRT in particular, SMRT has recorded an average workplace injury rate of 648 cases per 100,000 workers annually since 2020 – which is well below the national industry rate.

5.     These positive trends reflect the collective efforts by all stakeholders towards improving workplace safety. I am glad that more and more companies and workers are placing greater importance in workplace safety and health.

CHALLENGES IN WORKPLACE SAFETY AND HEALTH

6.     Instilling safety consciousness and safe work practices may not come quite naturally to everyone.

7.     First, some of our SMEs may be concerned about resources required to implement good workplace safety and health practices. They may not have dedicated safety professionals or the necessary expertise in-house due to the lack of scale and resources. They may also have limited access to updated training programmes and best practices.

8.     Second, there is also a concern that investing in workplace safety and health will increase business costs. But as SMRT Chairman, Mr. Seah Moon Ming, mentioned earlier, “Good safety is good business” and that is an important mindset to have. Organisations need to pay attention to safety and health instead of focusing only on the immediate operational needs, because we want our businesses to be in this for the long haul. To achieve that and keep our workers, customers and commuters safe, I think it is very important that we pay attention to long-term investments to improve safety and health in the workplace.

A HEALTHY WORKFORCE IN A SAFE WORKPLACE

9.     These are challenges that we can tackle and overcome together as a community. Workplace safety systems around the world have shown that better safety outcomes can only be achieved if everyone is fully engaged. I am therefore, heartened by initiatives such as this SMRT Contractors’ Safety Forum, which is a valuable platform to foster learning across our transport sector, and strengthen safety collaborations among our contractors, industry partners, and institutes of higher learning.

10.    Indeed, a clearer recognition of contractors as integral team members is vital to enhancing workplace safety. For the first time, SMRT has introduced a new award category – the SMRT Contractors Safety Award. I applaud the good work done by our contractors. Today’s winners are being recognised for not only their excellent safety records, but also their efforts to strengthen ownership of workplace safety among all employees, and to promote the use of technology to address workplace safety challenges. My heartiest congratulations to the award recipients.

11.    I would like to use this opportunity to offer three suggestions for further improvement.

a.     First, set standards and build capabilities - not just in our individual companies but across the entire ecosystem. We have been doing so through our tripartite approach to workplace safety and health, involving workers, employers, and the Government. At the same time, we are seeing more proactive bottom-up initiatives. For example, in partnership with SIT, SMRT has developed a “Kaizen for Safety” training programme designed to equip SMRT’s partners with the methodologies and tools necessary to enhance workplace safety through real case studies.

b.     This training programme will also be made available to other contractors and vendors in the wider transport industry. SMRT will also release an audit improvement guidebook to assist staff in performing thorough audits and self- checks during operations and maintenance procedures.

c.     Second, promote a workplace that leverages technology to improve workplace safety. Technology is a key enabler for workplace safety. Companies should empower their workers to leverage technology to redesign their workplaces and processes to make them even safer.

d.     For example, one of the winners of the SMRT Contractor Safety Award today, NSL OilChem Waste Management, is an SME handling industrial waste in SMRT’s rail and bus premises. Their workers used to climb more than two metres above the ground to perform checks and transfer hazardous waste liquid. Besides modifying the loading point from the top to the bottom of the tank, NSL OilChem installed a smart level indicator to monitor the liquid level.

e.     This simple solution not only removed the need to work at height, but also increased the productivity of the workers. There are many similar ideas waiting to be discovered in our transport sector and I encourage everyone to work together, discover and implement these ideas, to start benefitting from the safety improvements.

f.     Third, good workplace safety practices are essential for business. Take for example Power Automation Pte Ltd, who is another winner of today’s award. Power Automation sent a strong signal of their commitment to foster a safety- conscious culture, by considering their contractors’ safety performance and commitment to safety in the tendering process.

g.     On a side note, I was just telling Deputy Secretary, Ministry of Transport (MOT), Mr. Lim Zhi Jian that MOT agencies will also continue to take into account contractors’ safety performance and commitment to safety in our tenders. In future, we will consider possibly placing more recognition on companies with higher bizSAFE levels.

h.     One of their criteria was to ensure that their appointed contractors had attained a minimum of bizSAFE Level 3 certification. This exemplifies that safety and business are not at odds, and can be mutually reinforcing.

CONCLUSION

12.    If I may sum up, I think there are three “T”s that I think are essential for us to be able to further improve workplace safety and health.

a.    The first “T” is Teamwork, because we cannot do this by ourselves. We need to work together, including with our contractors, and the tripartite partners.

b.     The second “T” is Technology, which can be used in an effective way, as a tool to help us to do our jobs even better.

c.     Last but not least, Training, because we must upskill and improve the readiness of our workers to be more conscious and aware of safety, and be able to use the safety tools and technologies available to redesign the workplace environment and processes.

13.    I would also like to convey my heartiest congratulations to the 10 award recipients this afternoon – thank you for leading the way in improving our safety practices. I hope your recognition and achievements can be a source of inspiration for others so that we can grow the number of companies with good safety practices over time.

14.    Thank you, and I wish everyone here a fulfilling safety forum ahead.

¹ Excluding 2020 due to COVID-19 disruption