START

YOUR SAFETY AND HEALTH @ WORK

A guide for small and medium sized enterprises

START YOUR SAFETY AND HEALTH @ WORK 1

 Contents Introduction

Do you know that a work incident that leads

Introduction 1 to injuries or ill health can hurt your
employees and eventually your productivity
and business profitability? It can grind your
Quick Check 2 operations to a standstill, impact staff morale,
and harm your company’s reputation and
Set up a team 3 future opportunities.
If you can prevent work accidents, you can
Think and plan 5 keep your business running smoothly and
enhance your future growth. Managing safety
and health at work can be simple.
Act on your plan 9
This book will guide you through START, a
five-stage approach:
Review your plan 13

Train your employees 17 Set up a team
Other Useful Information 19
Think and plan
Annex A – WSH Policy Sample 21
Act on your plan
Review your plan
Train your employees

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 Quick Check
YES NO
SET UP A TEAM
GO TO
1. Do you have a safety and health team or committee? PAGE 4

THINK AND PLAN

GO TO
2. Do you have a safety and health policy? PAGE 6

GO TO
3. Do you set safety and health rules? PAGE 6

GO TO
4. Do you have a plan to address safety and health issues? PAGE 7

GO TO
5. Have you done your risk assessment? PAGE 8

ACT ON YOUR PLAN

GO TO
6. Have you developed safe work procedures? PAGE 10

GO TO
7. Do you have a maintenance programme for equipments? PAGE 10

GO TO
8. Do you have an emergency plan? PAGE 11

GO TO
9. Do you keep your employees informed on safety and health matters? PAGE 12

REVIEW YOUR PLAN

GO TO
10. Do you monitor your safety and health performance? PAGE 14

GO TO
11. Do you investigate and report incidents? PAGE 15

TRAIN YOUR EMPLOYEES

GO TO
12. Do you provide training to your employees? PAGE 18

YES
NO
If you’ve answered “yes” to all 12 questions, please continue your effort on WSH.
Follow the steps in the pages stated to get started on your WSH journey.
Set Up a Team
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 Set Up a Team
Do you have a safety and health team or committee?

DO YOU KNOW?
• It is mandatory to form a WSH
Committee if your company has
more than 50 employees and is
regarded as a factory1 under the
WSH Act.
• The WSH Committee must meet
at least once a month.
• Minutes of meeting must be
recorded and filed.
• Factories that have 100 or more
employees will need to appoint a
WSH Officer.

Workplace Safety and Health (WSH) issues cannot be handled by one

person. To address all aspects of the organisation’s WSH operations, it has
to be a group effort.
You may want to consider forming a team or committee to plan, develop
and promote WSH. We suggest that the WSH team be made up of:
• Chairman;
• Secretary; and
• Members.
If your company has fewer than 10 employees, forming a team may not be practical.
Do consider:
• Including WSH in the agenda of your company meetings; and
• Appointing a representative to handle WSH in your company.

Think and Plan

1
For the definition of a factory, refer to the WSH Regulatory Framework on Ministry of Manpower’s website.

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 Think and Plan
Do you have a company safety and health policy? Do you have a plan to address safety and health issues?
After forming a WSH team for your company,
formulate a safety and health policy statement.
A clear and concise policy statement will reflect DO YOU KNOW? DO YOU KNOW?
your company’s commitment and support • The safety and health policy As there may be a list of issues to
towards managing the wellbeing, safety and should be communicated to be addressed, you need to:
health of your staff. This statement should be your staff. • prioritise the importance;
signed by the business owner, managing • Place it in a visible location, • put a reasonable timeline to
director or CEO equivalent, to demonstrate such as the notice board or each action item;
senior management’s commitment. reception area. • identify resources required; and
A good policy will consist of: • identify owners for each action
item.
• Commitment to adhere to relevant legal
requirements;
• Duties and responsibilities to ensure wellbeing,
safety and health at work; and
• Commitment to continuously improve WSH performance.

Do you set basic safety and health rules?

Now that you have a safety and health policy to
set your company’s direction, you can move on
to define basic safety and health rules for your
employees, vendors, contractors and visitors.
DO YOU KNOW?
• Rules must be documented, The policy and rules form the fundamentals of WSH in the company and the WSH team
Rules create a common understanding on what communicated and made can now start identifying the issues to be solved. Your WSH team can brainstorm on WSH
can make your workplace safer. To ensure easily available. issues with these questions.
compliance, you may want to put regular • Review of rules should be
checks in place. carried out periodically. • Have we carried out risk assessment for each work activity2?
• Some organisations incorporate • Do we have safety instructions for each job?
Some common rules and regulations could • Are our machines properly maintained to ensure safe operations?
include: WSH compliance as part of staff
appraisal. • What should we do if there is an emergency?
• No smoking near areas where flammable • Are our employees adequately trained?
materials are stored; • Do we provide personal protective equipment3?
• Speed limit within the company compound • Do we need regular inspection or audit?
should not exceed 20km/hr; • Have we addressed the personal health risks?
• No consumption of alcohol at work; • Do we have health promotion programmes?
• No by-passing of emergency switch; and
• Prompt reporting of all injuries.

2
For more information on common WSH hazards and suggested safety tips, go to A Guide to Workplace Safety and
Health: Don’t ignore everyday risks at work on the WSH Council website.
3
For information on standards for personal protective equipment, refer to Singapore Standards on SPRING
Singapore’s website.

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 Have you done your risk assessment?

DO YOU KNOW?
• It is mandatory to carry out risk
assessment under the WSH (Risk
Management) Regulations 2007.
• Risk assessment should be reviewed
every three years, or with the
occurrence of an incident or when
there are major changes to the work
practices or work processes.
• The WSH Council has a step by step
programme called bizSAFE that
helps companies to build risk
management capabilities. More
information on bizSAFE can be
found on the WSH Council website.

By identifying the potential hazards your employees might face, you can then
determine and apply appropriate control measures to eliminate or minimise the risks.
These are the basic steps to conduct risk assessment4 (RA).
1. Form a RA team with staff who are familiar with the work.
2. Gather information such as:
- layout or plan of your workplace;
- list of all work activities; and
- list of equipment, tools and chemicals used at work.
3. Identify the hazards, including personal health risks, associated with
the work activities.
4. Evaluate the risks based on how likely an incident will happen and
how serious it can be.
5. Eliminate or control the risks.
6. Keep RA records and review them regularly. Act on your Plan
4
For more information on risk management, refer to Code of Practice on WSH Risk Management on the WSH Council
website.

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 Act on your Plan
Have you developed safe work procedures? Do you have an emergency plan?
Documenting instructions or work procedures will
ensure that knowledge is passed on and not lost.

However, it is insufficient to solely perform the

DO YOU KNOW? DO YOU KNOW?
job in the correct sequence and manner. Carrying Safe work procedures must be: • It would be useful to display
out the work safely is equally important. In • documented; the names of first aiders and
developing safe work procedures, you can follow • communicated; and emergency numbers in
these steps. • reviewed when there are prominent locations.
changes to the work • Fire extinguishers must be
1. Identify a list of work activities. periodically checked and
2. Break down each activity into simple steps. activities, RA or when there
are incidents. replaced when expired.
3. For each step, discuss with the RA team on how • Drills should be conducted
to perform it safely and minimise any health risks. periodically to test your plan.
You must also ensure that plans are put in place if you
have work at height activities5 or lifting activities6.

Do you have a maintenance programme for equipments?

Defects or failure of the work equipment can turn
work activities into a dangerous situation and
First Aid
your workers may get injured. Due to time loss
from work stoppages, productivity will also be
DO YOU KNOW? As a basic emergency preparation, your employees should have access to first aid
The maintenance programme provision such as:
affected. Having a good maintenance programme
should be reviewed annually. • sufficient number of first-aid boxes; and
is, therefore, essential to keep work machinery
safe and reliable. • adequate number of first aiders (For 25 to 100 employees, you need a trained first
aider. Subsequently, you need to maintain the ratio of one first aider for every 100
A good maintenance programme should include:
employees.).
• Identifying a list of equipment;
• Setting frequency of maintenance according Fire Safety
to manufacturer’s recommendation; Building owners or occupiers of certain premises need to prepare a fire emergency plan8
• Ensuring that manufacturer’s manual for maintenance is updated and available if and notify the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF). All tenants should be informed of
the maintenance can be carried out in-house; and such procedures.
• Training employees to use the equipment properly and safely.
Spill Control
Statutory equipment such as lifting equipment and pressure vessels must be licensed7 If your company handles a large quantity of chemicals, you must ensure there is an
by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) and inspected by an authorised examiner. emergency plan in the event of a spill and a spill control kit to mitigate any loss of
containment. Activate SCDF when the spillage is beyond your company’s control.
5
For more information on working at height, refer to Code of Practice on Working Safely at Height on the WSH Council
website.
6
For requirements of safe lifting, refer to Code of Practice on Safe Lifting on the WSH Council website.
7
For more information on licensing of equipment, visit the MOM website. 8
Information about the Fire Safety Plan Approval is available at the SCDF website.

10 START YOUR SAFETY AND HEALTH @ WORK START YOUR SAFETY AND HEALTH @ WORK 11
 Do you keep your employees informed on safety and
health matters?

DO YOU KNOW?
Your employees should be
informed of the following safety
and health matters:
• safety and health policy;
• employees’ roles and
responsibilities;
• hazards, risks and control
measures for the operations that
they are involved in;
• safe work procedures;
• emergency procedures; and
• contact numbers of the first
aider and fire warden.

Educating employees on safety and health matters is a challenge.

However, with good communication and consultation, employees can
be involved and informed on safety and health issues at the workplace.

Some methods of communication include:

• providing a WSH notice board;
• holding regular safety talks and screening of videos;
• distributing of safety handbooks and brochures;
• displaying WSH signs and posters; and
• organising a WSH Day annually.

Review your Plan

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 Review your Plan
Do you monitor your safety and health performance? Do you investigate and report incidents?

DO YOU KNOW?
• RA and safe work procedures
should be reviewed when a
workplace incident has occurred.
• You can also pick up important
learning points from past
incident cases. They can be found
at the WSH Bulletins on the WSH
Council website.10

Keeping track of your company’s safety and health performance will help you to Incident Reporting
monitor trends and identify gaps and areas for improvement.
As an employer, you must notify MOM of the following workplace incidents immediately
Monitoring your company’s WSH performance includes data gathering on: or as soon as reasonably practicable11:
• incident trends; • fatality;
• medical leave trends • injury whereby your employee is given more than three cumulative days of medical leave;
• findings from inspections; or hospitalised for at least 24 hours;
• findings from audit; and • occupational diseases; and
• feedback from employees. • dangerous occurrences.

It is also important to set standards and requirements for your vendors or contractors9. Incident Investigation
As part of your monitoring system, you should also include supervision of their safety
The true cost of a workplace incident is often underestimated. To prevent an incident
and health performance.
from recurring, investigations must be conducted12. This will help you to find the root
You can request the following from your contractors: cause of the incident and identify gaps in your safety and health system. In conducting
an investigation, you should:
• RA records;
• past safety records; • form a team;
• safe work procedures; and • identify the sequence of events;
• their own contractor management policies. • identify root causes and their solutions; and
• develop an action plan.
10
To view past WSH-related case studies, refer to the WSH bulletins on the WSH Council website
11
For information on incident reporting, refer to Incident Reporting on Ministry of Manpower’s website.
9
For information, refer to WSH Guidelines Contractor Management on the WSH Council website.
12
For information on conducting investigations, refer to WSH Guidelines: Investigating Workplace Incidents for SMEs on
the WSH Council website.

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 Train your Employees
16 START YOUR SAFETY AND HEALTH @ WORK START YOUR SAFETY AND HEALTH @ WORK 17
 Train your Employees Other Useful Information
Do you provide training to your employees? Financial Assistance

Financial Assistance Description

DO YOU KNOW? Skills Development

Fund (SDF)
A funding scheme for employers to get subsidies for course
fees and absentee payroll from SDF for rank-and-file workers
Workers from the following sectors
as well as professionals, managers, executives and
must attend compulsory safety
technicians for pre-approved courses.
orientation training:
• construction; Workplace Health A funding scheme offered by the Health Promotion Board.
• oil and petrochemical; Promotion Grant The grant provides financial support to help SMEs establish
• metalworking; and and sustain their workplace health programmes.
• marine.
Accelerated A tax incentive scheme to recover the cost of implementing
Depreciation noise control measures over a one-year period.
Allowance for Noise
Control

Accelerated A tax incentive scheme to recover the costs of implementing

Safety Orientation Depreciation chemical hazard control measures over a one-year period.
Allowance for
When new workers are hired, they should undergo an in-house safety orientation course
Chemical Hazard
first to familiarise themselves with the new work environment.
Control
Likewise for veteran workers in your company, they should also go for upgrading or
refresher courses regularly. Productivity and A scheme that offers tax deductions and cash payouts to
Innovation Credit companies for investing in innovations and improving
When there are changes in work procedures, all workers should be informed and retrained Scheme (PIC) productivity.
where necessary.
WSH Culture Fund A grant to help defray costs incurred in going through the
Other Trainings (WCF) CultureSAFE programme.
Many Learning Service Providers (LSP) and related courses offered by the Singapore Others SPRING provides schemes to assist new companies in setting
Accreditation Council (SAC) Scheme provide a range of relevant courses for workers13. By up and establishing their business.
undergoing related WSH training, your workers can upgrade their knowledge and skills
hence improving their job performance.

13
For a list of Learning Service Providers (LSP) and courses provided by the Singapore Accreditation Council (SAC)
Scheme, go to Ministry of Manpower’s website. Note that the LSP will replace the existing Accredited Training
Providers (ATP).

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 Annex A - WSH Policy Sample
Guidance Materials
These guidance materials are available on the WSH Council website at www.wshc.sg.
WORKPLACE SAFETY AND HEALTH POLICY
If you would like a hardcopy, please email contact@wshc.sg. Copies are subject to
availability. You can download a softcopy of the collaterals from the WSH Council website
under the Resources tab. ABC Company is a leading consumer product factory in the metal industry. We are
committed to providing staff, contractors and visitors with a healthy and safe
environment.
Guidance materials Description
This policy applies to the company premises, activities of the company and controlled
Activity Based A short one to two-page checklist that highlights the hazards
equipment.
Checklist specific to an activity at work. Available in both English and
Mandarin.
The company strives to fully integrate health and safety into all aspects of its activities
Guidebook A quick guide that provides information on specific work through a continuous improvement of processes. This will be achieved by:
hazards and precautionary measures to take. Some examples
of guidebooks are: • Implementing and maintaining a framework that ensures the systematic
- Guidebook for Lifting Supervisors management of health and safety throughout all sites and workplaces and
- Confined Space Safety Guidebook compliance with legal and other requirements; and
- Ladder Safety Guidebook • Setting measurable objectives and targets aimed at controlling higher risk
activities and increasing awareness of health and safety.
Case Studies Documented past incidents that occurred in an industry.
Includes how the incidents happened and how to prevent a Our principal goal is to improve well-being, health and safety management and to
recurrence. Available for the following industries: eliminate injuries and illnesses at our workplaces.
- Construction
- Metalworking
We promote a proactive health and safety management philosophy based on effective
- Marine
communication and consultation, the systematic identification, assessment and control
- Chemical
of hazards and the encouragement of innovation.
- Logistics and Transport

Step-by-Step Guide Offers instructions on how to set up a Risk Management

on Risk Management System in your workplace.

WSH Guidelines References that provide information on identifying hazards, SIGNATURE

good WSH practices, and control measures. Some topics
include:
- Safe Operation of Forklift Trucks Managing Director
ABC Company COMPANY LOGO
- Guide to Total Workplace Safety and Health
- Traffic Safety Management June 2012

Codes of Practice Sets the preferred work practices or standards that industry
practitioners are expected to adopt when managing
workplace risks. Existing codes include:
- Working Safely at Heights
- WSH Risk Management
- Safe Lifting Operations in the Workplaces

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 Revised in February 2015 by the Workplace Safety
and Health Council in collaboration with the
Ministry of Manpower.
All rights reserved. This publication may not be
reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
means, in whole or in part, without prior written
permission. The information provided in this
publication is accurate as at time of printing. The
Workplace Safety and Health Council does not accept
any liability or responsibility to any party for losses or
damage arising from following this publication.
This publication is available on the
Workplace Safety and Health Council
Website: www.wshc.sg
Email: contact@wshc.sg

22 START YOUR SAFETY AND HEALTH @ WORK