Enforcement and education efforts in place to safeguard workplace safety

We refer to the letter “Increase enforcement against illegal excessive overtime” (13 Jan) by Ms Mizue Sauco of Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2).

The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) takes workplace safety and health seriously and has taken a multi-pronged approach to ensure the safety and well-being of workers. This includes educating employers and employees on the maximum hours of overtime permitted under the Employment Act and working with NGOs and tripartite partners to raise awareness on workplace safety to both employees and employers.

These education efforts are complemented by regular inspections to check on companies’ compliance with the employment laws, such as working hours, overtime performed, and mandatory issuance of payslips.

Our efforts have been effective. Construction companies are generally compliant with our employment laws. 9 in 10 construction companies inspected in 2024 are compliant with employment laws such as working hours, overtime payment and payslips.

Ms Sauco cited an article from The Straits Times on workplace incidents in the Construction sector. Many of these recent workplace incidents were due to the lack of basic safety measures or non-compliance with established safety procedures, and not because of excessive overtime. Through targeted efforts to improve workplace safety and health in high-risk sectors such as Construction, our workplace fatality rate, which averages about 1.1 per 100,000 workers over the past 5 years is among the top performers globally among OECD countries. MOM will press on with education and enforcement efforts to safeguard our employment standards and workplace safety and health for workers.

Tan Fang Qun
Director, Employment Standards Enforcement
Labour Relations and Workplaces Division
Ministry of Manpower