Assuming Employees Know Safety Proves Fatal in Singapore

Recently in Singapore’s Subordinate Courts, Madam Gan Hui Leung, a 46-year-old Singaporean foreign domestic worker (FDW) employer, became the first to be convicted this year for failing to ensure the safety of her employee who fell from a height while working and subsequently died from her injuries.

According to Singapore’s Ministry of Manpower, Gan was fined a maximum of $5,000. This is the first case involving a conviction of an FDW employer for safety lapses in 2012. [WCx]

The Indonesian Foreign Domestic Worker (FDW), Siti Ustima, 25, was employed by Gan for 8 months. One afternoon Siti was cleaning the living room windows of Gan’s fifth story flat in Clementi. Shortly after, there was a loud noise and she was found lying dead on the ground floor. A wooden chair, a red plastic pail and a cleaning spray were later found next to the living room windows of the flat.

Investigations revealed that during the employment of Ustima, Gan did not demonstrate or give specific instructions to her on how the windows should be cleaned. The employer assumed that Siti, who was transferred from another employer, would know how to do so.

Furthermore, Gan had seen Siti cleaning the bedroom and living room windows standing on a stool with the windows and the grilles wide open. Gan did not stop the FDW under such circumstances, nor did she ask the FDW to get off the stool immediately. Gan also did not provide her FDW with an extendable window wiper to clean hard-to-reach areas of the windows.

For failing to ensure the FDW performed her duties in a manner which does not endanger her life or personal safety, Gan has violated the Work Permit Conditions for the employment of FDWs, which is an offence under section 22(1)(a) of the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act. Employers who infringe on these conditions can be fined up to $5,000 or face a jail term of up to six months or both. They will also be permanently barred from employing an FDW in future.

From 2007 to 2011, 24 FDWs have fallen to their deaths while at work. Fourteen employers were found to have breached the Work Permit conditions for endangering the lives of FDWs. Nine employers were prosecuted and fined up to $5,000, and were permanently barred from hiring FDWs. The remaining employers had their offences compounded. [WCx]

So far this year, there have been eight cases of fatal falls from FDWs while at work. Investigations are currently on-going for these cases.

Author Michael B. Stack, CPA, Director of Operations, Amaxx Risk Solutions, Inc. is an expert in employer communication systems and part of the Amaxx team helping companies reduce their workers compensation costs by 20% to 50%. He is a writer, speaker, and website publisher. www.reduceyourworkerscomp.com. Contact: mstack@reduceyourworkerscomp.com.

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Assuming Employees Know Safety Proves Fatal in Singapore

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