A COMPARISON STUDY OF CONSTRUCTION WORKPLACE SAFETY ACTS IN SINGAPORE AND AUSTRALIA

Abstract

According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), there are at least 60,000 fatal accidents on construction sites around the world each year. It is important to look into the prevention of the accidents and deaths as these deaths are unnecessary and the frontline of action is definitely through the enactment of safety regulations and the constant review of these regulations. This study aims to compare Singapore’s Workplace Safety and Health Act 2011 and Australia’s Work Health and Safety Act 2011 and look into the possibility of applying the differences to Singapore through a comparison case study of both Acts. The study showed that similarities exist between the two Acts in the areas of responsibilities, enforcements and penalties. Differences exist in the areas of areas of responsibilities, and penalties. This study shows that it is possible to apply the differences between the Acts to different extent. This study is limited the Work Health and Safety Act came in place only in 2011 as cases are not readily available for analysis. However, this study shows the future possibilities of looking at the global development of safety regulations and improvement of the regulations by looking at safety acts in countries other than our own and from there maybe deaths in construction can be reduced.