Speeches

Industry Partners, 

Colleagues from the Land Transport Authority and other public agencies, 

Ladies and gentlemen,

1.     Good morning. Welcome to the LTA’s 26th Annual Safety, Health, and Environmental Awards Convention (ASAC). Since 1999, this annual platform has been an opportunity to recognise our contractors and partners, and express our appreciation for their contributions towards safety, health, and environmental management. 

2.     The ASAC underscores LTA’s commitment to the safety and well-being of workers on our worksites. Thanks to the close cooperation of our contractor partners, we have continued to make progress on our Accident Frequency rate, from 0.43 in the first half of 2023 to 0.31 in the first half of 2024. 

3.     However, our work is far from over. While the overall accident rate has come down, we must do better to prevent major accidents, and to avert unfortunate consequences. After a good year in 2022 where we had zero worksite fatalities, we saw three deaths in 2023, and another four deaths to-date in 2024 on our worksites. The most recent happened just two weeks ago when two workers lost their lives after being struck by a winch drum at a North-South Corridor site. This tragedy is a grim reminder that ensuring worksite safety is a never-ending effort, and must always remain our top priority.

4.     Some of you have shared that ensuring a safe worksite has become increasingly challenging. First, the size and scale of ongoing projects. LTA’s construction activities have been picking up, and are expected to peak from 2026. For the first half of 2024, manhours expended on LTA construction projects increased by 11% compared to the same period last year. Many of these projects are also far more complicated, involving challenging underground works, and works alongside busy roads and dense residential estates. Such complicated works create higher risk of accidents. 

5.     Second, to support the scale of our projects, the number of workers has also increased substantially, from about 30,200 in 2019 to 43,600 in 2024. Bringing in more workers means that we have more new inexperienced workers. This presents a challenge for maintaining a high-level of safety awareness on the ground.

6.     Third, climate change has resulted in hotter days, putting our workers at greater risk of developing heat-induced issues, as well as vector-borne diseases like dengue.

7.     Recognising these enormous challenges, it is imperative that we prioritise worksite safety, redouble our efforts, and continually improve our practices to reach our goal of zero worksite fatalities. 

8.     To draw on all of our combined experience and expertise, LTA organised a Safety Retreat in April this year. Leaders from LTA, contractor partners, and Qualified Persons for Supervision came together to take a hard look at our existing safety performance, and identify and address pressing issues.

9.     The result of these deliberations was the Zero-accident Action Plan 2.0, or ZAP 2.0. ZAP 2.0 is an acknowledgement that we cannot continue business-as-usual where worksite safety is concerned, and must go back to strengthening the fundamentals. The key elements of ZAP 2.0 are as follows:

10.    First, strengthen supervision of workers. Supervisors play a very important role in safety – we have seen many serious accidents happen during ancillary works, before or after main construction activities. These can be prevented if we have well-trained and vigilant supervisors to ensure the safety of every worker under their charge, the moment they arrive at the worksite. Our contractor partners will establish a comprehensive competency framework and assessments for supervisors, equipping them to identify safety risks, and to carry out mitigation measures.

11.    Second, foster a positive safety culture and deter risk-taking behaviour. Our contractor partners will implement carrot-and-stick approaches to reward good practices, and a 3-strike-out system to deter repeat safety offenders. This means that those who repeatedly flout safety rules, whether worker or supervisor, could be barred from working at LTA worksites.

12.    Third, strengthen safety awareness and know-how, especially for new workers. Contractor partners have committed to implementing an enhanced management programme for new workers and assign them to more experienced buddies who speak the same language. LTA has also implemented a standard sticker on helmets for quick identification of new workers on site, so that more attention will be paid to them. LTA is also working with contractor partners to produce bite-sized safety videos on Telegram, to reinforce safety awareness among workers.

13.    To the CEOs of our contractor partners: By signing ZAP 2.0, you have committed yourself to working with your teams and sub-contractors to put it into action. I urge you to take this commitment seriously. Step up the rigour of safety inspections, and report near misses promptly to address safety gaps. Never turn a blind eye to any sub-standard work condition, or condone any unsafe practice, no matter how trivial it may seem. As leaders, you set the tone and determine the safety outcomes and safety culture on your worksites. 

14.    I also encourage you to share your best practices with LTA and the rest of the industry. For example, in response to rising temperatures, some LTA contractor partners have gone beyond the mandatory heat stress precautions imposed by MOM. I hear that some have put up misting fans, and are providing ice slurries or cold isotonic drinks at workers’ work and rest areas. I commend these contractor partners for taking the initiative to enhance the well-being of their workers, and at the same time boost their morale and productivity.

 

15.    LTA’s commitment with worksite safety is shared by the broader Government. From 1 April 2024, under the guidance of the Multi-Agency Workplace Safety and Health Taskforce, BCA and MOM have rolled out enhancements to the Workplace Safety and Health or WSH requirements for construction and construction-related projects under the Government. 

16.    These enhancements include standardising safety requirements across government agencies, placing higher weightage on Contractor’s safety records during the tender stage, and enhancing monetary rewards for Contractors with good WSH performances. We want to make sure that good safety sense is also good business sense, so that contractors can have no excuse to compromise safety to serve the bottom line. 

17.    To conclude, let me extend my appreciation to all the finalists and winners for this year’s Annual Safety, Health, and Environmental Award Convention. I call upon everyone in this room to follow in their example, to do your utmost to raise and uphold the safety, health, and environmental standards for your organisations and your workers. The commitments and actions must come from the top and reach the last person on the ground. Together we pledge our commitment to keep every worker safe and healthy.

18.    Let me also thank everyone who was involved in helping us to resume our East-West Line MRT service today. I would like to thank all the technicians and engineers from LTA & SMRT as well as all the bus captains and staff from LTA, SMRT as well as the other PTOs – SBS Transit, Tower Transit and Go-Ahead Singapore. Thank you for your hard work and dedication to get us back on track. I have gone down to meet some of the staff who were working extended hours, not just those who were repairing the tracks, but also the staff who were marshalling the commuters. I would like to thank everyone for chipping in and working as One Transport Family. 

19.    Thank you.