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SINGAPORE: A security officer and a project manager were sentenced to prison on Wednesday (September 23) after a Bangladeshi worker died following a construction accident at Changi Airport more than three years ago.
Workplace safety and health officer Tan Wee Meng was sentenced to two months in jail, while project director Lee Chung Ling was sentenced to three months in jail, the Ministry of Hand said Thursday. of Work (MOM).
Both men pleaded guilty on August 20 to negligent acts that endangered the safety of workers who were building a conduit for high-voltage cables along Airport Boulevard at Changi Airport.
Employer Chan and Chan was fined S $ 150,000 on September 13, 2018 for failing to take viable measures to ensure the safety and health of its employees.
READ: More Fatal Work-Related Accidents Despite Decline in Work Activities Due to COVID-19 Pandemic
On March 22, 2017, at approximately 10.50 a.m. M., Bangladeshi worker Miah Salim, 43, was inside an excavation pit and erecting the formwork for the construction of the high voltage cable duct.
At the time of the incident, five other workers were working with Mr. Salim, who was the leader of the group.
Mr. Salim was using a hammer to adjust a horizontal wooden strut, used to support two steel plates, when the strut slipped. This caused one of the steel plates to fall inward and hit Mr. Salim’s chest, court documents said.
He was later taken to Changi General Hospital, where he died around 1 PM from his injuries.
As an occupational safety and health officer, Tan did not help Chan and Chan identify and assess the hazards arising from the formwork construction methods used by the workers to construct the high-voltage cable conduit, MOM said.
Tan also did not recommend to the employer “reasonably practicable measures to eliminate foreseeable risks to workers,” the ministry added.
Lee did not review the work method and processes for the construction of the duct formwork and did not ensure that the employer appointed a supervisor for the formwork activities at the jobsite.
The project manager also failed to approve the risk assessments and safe work procedures for the use of metal module formwork in the workplace and did not ensure that control measures were implemented in the risk assessments.
According to court documents, the workers were using an “unsafe and unauthorized” method to construct the formwork with steel plates, something neither Lee nor Tan noticed.
On the job site, the common method for constructing the formwork for the conduit was metal module formwork and not the conventional frame, court documents said.
The employer, through Lee and Tan, had approved the use of both the wooden formwork and the metal module formwork.
“Workers had been using metal module formwork to build the conduit at the job site for several weeks prior to the accident,” court documents said.
“The work activity for the conduit construction using the metal module formwork was not considered in the risk assessment documents. There was also no documented procedure for the use of the metal module formwork.”
The workers, who were unaware of the procedures for the formwork’s construction methods, followed Mr. Salim’s instructions to get the job done, court documents said.
