Workplace Safety and Insurance in Singapore

Workplace safety is a concern for companies and employees alike all over the world, especially in highly developed areas like Singapore where the employees are highly valued assets to their employers. Any down time of a worker due to an accident or illness can lead to real hiccups for a business, so the last thing that Singapore companies want is for their employees to be injured on the job when the accident could have easily been avoided.

In order to promote safety in the workplace, the onus falls to employers to properly educate their employees and provide them with the resources necessary to avoid any unsafe conditions that may arise. However, a government body has been vocal about their feeling that a third party should be more involved in aiding companies and employees, as it stands to benefit from a focus on workplace safety. The 3rd party is, of course, the insurance industry. Here, we discuss more about what insurance companies can do to help the effort, as well as why it’s in their interest to do so.

WSH to insurers: Get involved with job site safety

In August of 2016, at their annual conference, the Workplace Safety and Health Council (WSH) stated that they feel that the insurance industry can play a larger role in improving workplace safety than just paying out benefits on companies’ insurance policies. They have even gone so far as to propose that insurance companies in Singapore spearhead an effort to promote workplace safety.

This would logically be a good move on the part of insurers, as their efforts to promote workplace safety will likely lead to a reduction in the number of accidents on the job, which would then lead to less insurance claims, and less money spent by insurers overall.

Other WSH thoughts on how insurance companies can improve their occupational safety support included:

• Communicating with and assisting companies with regards to increasing their workplace safety performance, as well as helping workers in coming back to work following an accident or illness.
• Managing claims more quickly and efficiently.
• Bolstering risk profiling of client companies by using a differentiated premium tied to a risk profile from WSH.
• Establishing a database of all companies covered by Singapore insurers in order to ensure that companies cannot deny the truth regarding their risk profile.

The data on Singapore workplace safety

How big an issue is employee safety in Singapore anyway? There are numerous figures out there that help us to get a clearer picture:

• After the workplace fatality rate in Singapore jumping from 1.8 to 1.9 out of 100,000 workers between 2014 and 2015, Singapore’s Manpower Minister surmised that the rate could get as high as 2.2 in 2016. This would spell out a trend of Singapore’s job sites becoming progressively less safe.

• 80% of all major injuries and fatalities in Singapore can be attributed to the construction sector, particularly on projects worth more than SGD 10 million. Of the 48 workplace fatalities recorded by the end of August 2016, 19 of them occurred in construction.  
• Poor planning and execution of work has been attributed to 70% of workplace fatalities.
• 90% of workplace fatalities occurred as the result of workers adopting unsafe or incorrect behavior.

• Of the 13,595 workplace injuries reported in 2014, 12,863 were classified as minor, 672 as major, and 60 as fatal. The most common type of incidents fell under the heading of slips, trip and falls, while ‘struck by moving objects’ and ‘cut / stabbed by objects’ came in 2nd and 3rd respectively.
• Workplace injuries fell in 2015 vs 2014 to 12,351, yet fatalities rose from 60 to 66.
• Companies with an unusually high incidence rate are monitored by the appropriate governmental bodies. In 2015, 14 different companies were put under surveillance under the Business under Surveillance scheme.

How can insurers address the problem?

The WSH has stated that the goal for workplace safety in Singapore is to get the fatality incidence down to 1.8 per 100,000 works by 2018, which is merely a return to 2014 figures. Certainly, employers and employees would like to see this number fall to nearly zero as soon as possible, as well as continue to see a dramatic reduction in the overall total number of injuries that occur, but can insurers really play a part in contributing towards this goal?

Well, as mentioned above, the majority of workplace fatalities (and certainly workplace injuries too) are preventable. Firstly, the WSH believes that reporting can be upgraded quite a bit. By reporting not only on incidents, but also on near misses, insurers and companies alike can identify areas where safety can be improved before any real incidents do occur.

Of course, in this situation a culture must be established on all sides that encourages or even rewards employees for coming forward when near misses do occur. If there is any chance that doing so could be of detriment to them or their company, individuals are likely to not be willing to come forward, and future problems may go unaddressed until it’s too late. Insurers incentivizing employers to get employees to engage in such reporting is a great step in improving safety long term.

Beyond this, insurers should be focusing on education as a means to prevent workplace accidents. If insurance companies are able to provide informational presentations or seminars on the topics for the employees of the companies they ensure, this would go a long way towards not only keeping safety in the forefront of employees’ minds, but also foster relationships between insurers and their clients, and act as an opportunity for employees to engage the insurer with questions or concerns.

If you would like to find out more about what specific insurers in Singapore can do to aid your organization in bolstering employee safety, it makes sense to get information from an insurance broker that is familiar with all the benefits and policies offered by the city-state’s insurance companies. Contact Pacific Prime Singapore today and our knowledgeable agents can provide you with the information you need to identify the best group health insurance policy for your company based on plan benefits and premium cost, as well as the extra perks an insurer can provide to help your company reduce accidents and injuries on the job.

• Author
• Recent Posts

Martin Lee

Content Creator at Pacific Prime Singapore

Martin is a writer and translator with over 10 years of experience. He writes articles and blog posts, creates infographics and videos, translates between Chinese and English, and more. Skilled at explaining complicated concepts in layman’s terms, Martin believes the gold standard of translation is attained when the translated text is not only accurate, but also reads like an original text. Martin holds a degree in Economics from the University of London, UK.

Since joining Pacific Prime, Martin has become even more aware of the gap between the true value of insurance products and most people’s appreciation of it, and developed a passion for demystifying and simplifying matters, so that more people get the protection they need at a cost they can easily afford.

In his free time, Martin attends concerts of various genres, and plays the violin with piano accompaniment he pre-recorded himself or played live by his niece.

Latest posts by Martin Lee (see all)

• LASIK in Singapore - July 21, 2023
• Fighting Childhood Obesity in Singapore: Healthy School Meals and Tips - July 12, 2023
• Understanding Hospital Room Rates in Singapore - June 6, 2023