IS428 2016-17 Term1 Assign2 Bong Jun Hao

Theme of interest

As of May 2016, the number of workplace deaths has hit 32, 6 more than in the same period last year. This prevalence of workplace-related fatalities has prompted the authorities to raise penalties for offenders or employees with safety lapses, but the question lies in whether stricter or heavier penalties alone can curb this trend.

Furthermore, to what extent would this actually solve the issue? Currently the heavier penalties introduced includes longer stop work time, from 2 weeks increased to 3 weeks, as well as depriving companies of new foreign workers until they have sorted out their safety issues. All these measures only serve to "worsen the dire situation for meeting deadlines and financial penalties for errant companies", according to the Singapore Contractors Association.

Hence, this workplace safety issues has sparked my curiosity in understanding the reason behind these injuries, as well as to find out if there is any underlying relationships between the injuries such that it can be resolved and worked on to effectively reduce the number of such incidents in Singapore, rather than to use financial deterrents which seem to only add on the issues and pressure companies even more.