Address Exploitation To Reduce Work Place Accidents

A version of this letter was published in Today on 30 August 2012.

We need to re-examine our strategy towards work place safety in light of the recent spate of accidents at construction sites. Singapore’s approach to this issue so far has been to step up on enforcement checks, educate workers, raise public awareness, and increase penalties for companies that ignore safety procedures. What is missing in the current discussion is the impact of exploitation on work place safety. 

In a study we published last year about migrant Chinese construction workers, we found that 10- to 16-hour work days from Mondays to Saturdays, and 8-hour work days on Sundays, were commonly reported among the workers we interviewed. Several workers also cited long hours of up to 24 hours a day or longer on split shifts. Such conditions mean migrant construction workers have little or no time to rest. A large number of them can also be found in poor accommodation, especially those who live in construction sites. These places are often crowded, poorly ventilated and infested with bed bugs and pests.

Poor working and living conditions will have a significant impact on their ability to concentrate and be alert while they are at work. In a study on the causes of work place accidents in the construction industry conducted by Dr Margaret Chan of the University of Sydney, she found that factors like failure to use equipment or failure by individual workers to follow safety procedures are also influenced by fatigue.

Construction work involves intense focus, heavy physical exertion and repetitive work tasks. These are factors which lead to tiredness and stress. When workers have little control over their work choices, struggle to adjust to life in Singapore and have to worry about financial pressures, it may result in various forms of depression, and anxiety. This inadvertently leads to an inability to concentrate well at work, and thus leaving them more vulnerable to work place accidents.

Exploitation has to be taken more seriously and the MOM should hold companies accountable for making employees work beyond statutory limits. Employers should put in place fatigue management programmes as part of their strategy to reduce work place accidents. They also need to drastically improve the living conditions of their workers. The physical and psychological well-being of all workers needs to be addressed if we want long term and significant reductions in the number of work place fatalities.