Section 8(1) of the Workplace Safety and Health Act (WSH Act) already holds all Company Directors liable for ensuring their workers’ safety and health and responsible for proving that they had exercised due diligence to prevent workplace incidents. 

The Code lists examples of reasonably practicable steps that Company Directors can take to realise the desired organisational WSH systems and culture.

It applies to all directors and officers involved in policy making and executive decisions of companies in all industries, even for companies that have no manual work and little risk of physical injury. 

The three key points are the following: 

1. Fulfilment of WSH Act obligations. 

The four principles listed in the Code of Practice are:

Principle 1: Ensure WSH is integrated into business decisions and has clarity of roles and responsibilities of Chief Executive and individual members of the Board of Directors in leading WSH.

Principle 2: Continuously build a strong WSH culture, set the tone and demonstrate visible leadership in embodying and communicating highly effective WSH standards.

Principle 3: Ensure that WSH management systems are highly effective and reviewed regularly.

Principle 4: Empower workers to actively engage in WSH.

Compliance with the Code of Practice – that means respecting those principles as well as implementing the specific measures suggested in the Code - could be used as a mitigating factor for the Court’s consideration in the event of an organisation’s WSH Act offence. 

2. Relevance to all organisations: The Code is relevant for all Company Directors, regardless of industry and organisation size. They must demonstrate a reasonable degree of due diligence to prevent WSH lapses in their organisations.

3. Calibration of measures in the Code of Practice: Company Directors should calibrate the suggested measures based on the relevance to their organizations (industry type and nature of exposure to risks and hazards).

The Code was adopted in a context where the Ministry Of Manpower (“MOM”), due to the increase in workplace fatalities since the start of 2022, adopted several measures for employers to higher WSH standards, aiming to reduce workplace the fatal injury rate to less than 1 per 100,000 workers by 2028. It also introduced a “Heightened Safety” period from 1 September 2022 to 28 February 2023. Moreover, as we reported here, the courts have also introduced a new sentencing framework with harsher penalties against employers that fail to ensure the health and safety of employees at work, confirming the importance of the issue. 

The COP is not mandatory, but it is intended to be used as a yardstick to assess whether reasonably practicable measures have been taken to upkeep safety and health standards at the workplace.

The Workplace Safety and Health (WSH) Council, together with the Singapore Institute of Directors (SID) and Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF), co-organised two dialogue sessions on the approved COP, held on 26 October 2022 and attended by over 120 top management representatives, where the parties discussed on the approach toward its implementation.