The Workplace Safety and Health Act places the duty on whoever has control, not only on the employer of the injured person. That means a company can owe duties to a contractor’s staff on its premises, and a principal can owe duties across a supply chain. Directors and senior managers can also be personally liable where an offence occurred with their consent or through their neglect.
Workplace Safety and Health
Policy and risk assessment
The Workplace Safety and Health Act places the duty on whoever has control, not only on the employer of the injured person. That means a company can owe duties to a contractor’s staff on its premises, and a principal can owe duties across a supply chain. Directors and senior managers can also be personally liable where an offence occurred with their consent or through their neglect.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Organisation | [COMPANY NAME], UEN [UEN] |
| Workplaces covered | [ADDRESSES OR SITES] |
| Approved by | [NAME], [Managing Director], on [DATE] |
| Policy owner | [NAME], [DESIGNATION] |
| Safety coordinator or officer | [NAME] — appointment may be required depending on sector and size |
| Risk assessment team leader | [NAME] |
| First aiders | [NAMES] |
| Emergency contact | [NAME], [PHONE] |
| Review | At least every 3 years, after any incident, and on any change to work or equipment |
1. Policy Statement
1.1The Company is committed to providing a safe and healthy workplace for its employees and for anyone else affected by its work, including contractors, visitors and members of the public.
1.2The Company will take reasonably practicable measures to ensure safety and health, will identify and control risks at source, and will not treat compliance as a substitute for actually managing risk.
1.3Safety is a management responsibility. Line managers are accountable for safety in their areas in the same way as for output and cost.
1.4Every person has the authority to stop work they reasonably believe to be unsafe, without any adverse consequence for doing so.
2. Duties
| Who | Duty |
|---|---|
| The Company as employer | Provide a safe work environment, safe equipment and systems of work, adequate instruction, training and supervision, and necessary welfare facilities |
| The Company as occupier | Where it controls premises, ensure the premises, means of access and any machinery are safe for everyone working there, including contractors and their personnel |
| The Company as principal | Where it engages contractors, take reasonably practicable measures to ensure the safety of the contractor’s work and personnel |
| Directors and senior managers | Exercise due diligence. Where an offence by the Company occurred with their consent or connivance, or through their neglect, they may be personally liable |
| Managers | Ensure risk assessments are current for their activities, that controls are applied, and that no one works without the required competence |
| Every person at work | Use equipment properly, follow safe systems of work, not endanger themselves or others, not interfere with safety measures, and report hazards |
6 more pages in the Word file
This is page 1 of the Word document, exactly as it appears when you open it. Fields shown like THIS are placeholders for you to complete.
These notes accompany the template and explain the drafting choices, the compliance points and the mistakes most often made with this document. They appear as a final page in the Word file, intended to be deleted before the document is executed.
The Act imposes duties on employers, occupiers, principals, manufacturers and others by reference to who has control. A company whose own staff are office-based still owes duties to contractors working on its premises, and a principal engaging contractors owes duties as to their work. This is the aspect most often missed by employers who assume safety law applies only to their own payroll.
Where an offence by the company is proved to have occurred with the consent or connivance of a director or senior manager, or to be attributable to their neglect, that individual can be personally liable. Safety therefore belongs on the board agenda, evidenced by the quarterly review in Clause 7.4, not delegated and forgotten.
Assessments prepared by a consultant or a manager without input from those who actually perform the task consistently miss the practical hazards — the shortcut everyone takes, the guard that gets removed because it slows the job. Clause 3.2 requires a team including the workers.
Personal protective equipment is the last resort in the hierarchy because it controls nothing at source and depends on correct use every single time. A risk assessment whose additional controls are all protective equipment has not been done properly. Elimination and engineering controls are what actually reduce risk.
The three-year cycle is a maximum. Any incident, near miss, change to equipment, change to materials, or change of personnel should trigger a review. An assessment that has not been touched since it was written, in an operation that has changed, is a document rather than a control.
Where part of the workforce does not read English fluently, safety instruction in English alone does not discharge the duty. This matters particularly where the workforce includes work permit holders. Clause 5.3 states it plainly — instruction that is not understood is not instruction.
The cheapest contractor is frequently the one without competent supervision or its own risk assessment, and the occupier or principal carries duties for their work regardless. Assess safety capability before engagement, exchange risk information, and agree who controls what.
An organisation that records only injuries is learning only from incidents that already cost something. Near-miss reporting is the leading indicator, and it only works where reporting is genuinely without consequence — which is why Clause 7.3 protects it explicitly.
An investigation that concludes the worker was careless produces no change and no protection. Because work injury compensation is a no-fault regime, establishing employee fault also achieves nothing legally. Ask what allowed the incident to be possible.
Clause 1.4 gives everyone the right to stop unsafe work without consequence. It is meaningless unless a worker who uses it is supported rather than questioned. The first time someone stops a job and is treated badly, nobody stops a job again.
Requirements to appoint a workplace safety and health officer or coordinator, and to establish a safety committee, depend on sector, workplace type and headcount. Confirm what applies rather than assuming an office-based business is outside them entirely.
Noise, ergonomics, chemical exposure, heat and fatigue produce harm over years rather than in a moment, so they generate no incident to react to. Statutory medical examinations exist for some of these; the rest depend on the assessment picking them up.
Hot work, work at height, confined space entry, electrical isolation and lifting operations account for a disproportionate share of serious injuries. A permit system forces a check before each occasion rather than relying on a standing procedure.
The accident and near-miss register is only useful if someone reviews it for patterns — repeated incidents at one location, on one shift, with one type of equipment. Item 11 makes that monthly, because individual incident closure conceals the pattern.
Reflects Singapore law current as of {{DATE OF USE}}. Requirements on risk assessment, appointed safety personnel, reportable incidents, statutory medical examinations and sector-specific regulations all change — confirm what applies to your workplace with the Ministry of Manpower, and take specialist advice for construction, marine shipyard, process or any operation involving hazardous substances.
This is a ready-to-use template provided for convenience. Laws and requirements change, and every situation is different — please have it reviewed by a qualified professional (a lawyer, corporate secretary, or accountant as relevant) before you rely on it.