Channel NewsAsia 20 Jun 08;
SINGAPORE: The Association of Singapore Marine Industries (ASMI) has urged shipyards to take a voluntary time-out to review their safety procedures.
The call comes in the wake of two fatal accidents within less than two weeks - one on June 8 and the other on June 17 - which left three dead and sent 19 to hospital.
Singapore has 89 shipyards, which range from the big boys to the smaller players.
With a boom in the marine industry, there has been a staffing crunch in recent years.
Given a mounting workload, safety measures may not be followed as closely as they should be.
This is the concern of the newly-established Workplace Safety and Health Council.
It plans to share more safety information at an upcoming forum for all shipyards, but will zoom in on small to medium-sized shipyards.
Lee Tzu Yang, chairman of Workplace Safety and Health Council, said: "We believe they are the ones most under pressure in this current business environment. They are the ones who have most difficulty in retaining skilled workers, in filling their safety officer positions."
There is one concern, though. Given that many of the workers are foreign nationals, safety messages may be lost in translation.
Mr Lee said: "I think that's a challenge, not only in shipyards but also in construction, in any industry which uses foreign nationals who work in Singapore. I think that simply increases the challenge - it is not an excuse."
Acting Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong said he is saddened by the loss of three lives in the accidents this month.
He urged the industry to learn from the incidents and take immediate steps to prevent them from happening again.
Mr Gan added that his ministry will step up enforcement on all shipyards to ensure that regulations are implemented on the ground to protect workers' lives.
Channel NewsAsia understands that this means that all shipyards will be checked, instead of random inspections.
In the immediate term, shipyards - both small and big - are starting to heed the call for downtime.
This, ASMI says, will allow them to do two things. One, have the management of shipyards ensure that processes and systems are in place, and two, ensure that the workers are fully aware of the need to follow safety procedures.
But how soon these will be carried out will be left to the shipyards. - CNA/ir
Shipyards face safety checks following two accidents
Islandwide exercise to zoom in on adherence to safety and health management systems
Jermyn Chow, Straits Times 21 Jun 08;
THE island's 89 shipyards will come under the close scrutiny of the Manpower Ministry's safety enforcement officers after two accidents in the space of two weeks killed three people and injured 19.
Yesterday, its spokesman told The Straits Times that checks, which begin next week, will zoom in on the shipyards' safety and health management systems, to see if they are being properly followed.
In a statement, Acting Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong said the enforcement checks would supplement a forum to be held next month, where lessons learnt would be shared to help protect workers' lives.
In the first of two deadly incidents, an Indian national died in hospital after he was severely burnt in an explosion on board a boat at the Kreuz shipyard in Tuas Crescent last week.
Then, just this Tuesday, two Indian nationals died and five others were injured while working below a ship deck at a neighbouring dry dock, in what appears to be a case of gas poisoning.
The deaths prompted the industry-led Workplace Safety and Health Council (WSHC) to put out an e-mail alert yesterday urging shipyards to call for an unprecedented 'time-out' from work to review safety processes and brief workers on safety measures.
It echoed the call made by the Association of Singapore Marine Industries (ASMI) to 200 members, which comprise shipyards and marine contractors, on Thursday, also recommending safety time-outs.
No timeframe was suggested for the voluntary stoppage of work, but some shipyards - both big and small - have already responded.
At least two are believed to have suspended operations for several hours yesterday to reflect on and relook safety processes.
Others have planned time-outs for next week, including ST Marine's two shipyards in Benoi and Tuas, where workers will spend two hours each day, for the whole week, running through safety procedures.
Keppel Offshore & Marine's seven shipyards here will also suspend operations for an hour from today. This will be in addition to the daily one-hour safety briefings it already has, said Mr Choo Chiau Beng, chairman and CEO of Keppel O&M.
Mr Michael Chia, president of the ASMI, said the time-out would help shake up shipyard workers who may have been lulled into complacency.
'It's good to pause for a while and reflect on how we are practising safety,' he added.
In a statement issued yesterday, WSHC chairman Lee Tzu Yang also pointed out that the latest incidents involved workers in confined spaces, where safety standards should be even higher because escape is hard when things go wrong.
He had visited DryDocks World Singapore - the shipyard where the suspected gas leak occurred - with marine industry leaders on Thursday.
The tragedies cast a pall over an industry that is booming.
Last year, the marine and offshore industry - largely the ship repair and conversion and offshore sectors - rang in $13.05 billion in total output - a 33 per cent jump from 2006.
Business is expected to stay buoyant for the next few years, as demand for oil spurs offshore exploration, which in turn ramps up the need for rigs. Growth in global shipping is also expected to rise.
However, a spokesman for Sembcorp Marine, which is calling for a daily half-hour safety time-out for the next two weeks, says safety is more crucial than the bottom line.
He added: 'The time-out will effectively reinforce the safety message among our employees and subcontractors. Safety should always be our number one priority.'
