Nature of foreign worker labour force and its effect on the effectiveness of safety legislations in Singapore's construction industry

Abstract

Safety in the construction industry ranks as one of the most dangerous industry to work in Singapore with high number of accidents and fatalities. Even with the revised legislation and introduction of Workplace Safety and Health Act, the number of accidents and fatalities are still well above the national average. Hence this paper aims to study the effectiveness of safety legislations, its enforcement to a unique workforce that is dominated by foreign workers, more so in construction than any other industry. Survey questionnaires were used to gather information from the perspective of foreign workers. Survey questionnaires were translated to five languages to ensure accuracy of results. Sixty workers were randomly selected from three construction sites to provide data for analysis on their perception of safety legislations. Interviews were also carried out to gain a different perspective from the contractors point of view and opinions from a non-profit organisation that helps foreign workers in distress. The overall results showed that despite the presence of legislative framework to protect workers and promote safety, it might be insufficient as the nature of the foreign worker has not been taken into consideration. A revision of the current enforcement with recommendations has been made to produce a comprehensive regulatory framework in Singapore. However the relatively low number of responses and subjectivity of the data constituted to the limitation of this study. Follow up studies include analysing proposed recommendations and their feasibility.