Occupational Safety and Health Division

About Us

The Occupational Safety and Health Division (OSHD) promotes OSH at the national level. We work with employers, employees and all other stakeholders to identify, assess, and manage workplace safety and health risks so as to eliminate death, injury and ill-health.

OSHD is the WHO Collaborating Centre for Occupational Health, as well as the ILO CIS National Centre for Singapore.

Vision

A safe and healthy workplace for everyone; and a country renowned for best practices in Workplace Safety and Health.

Mission

To eliminate death, injury and ill-health from all workplaces.

Our Goal

With the updated national strategy WSH2018, OSHD aims to reduce the workplace fatality rate to less than 1.8 per 100,000 workers by 2018 and move Singapore towards becoming a global leader in safety and health standards.

Strategic Outcomes

• Reduction in workplace fatality and injury rates
• Safety and Health is an integral part of business
• Singapore is renowned as a Centre of Excellence for WSH
• A progressive and pervasive Safety and Health culture for Singapore

The Need for Change

OSHD was reformed on 1 August 2005 to enable new and expanded capabilities to realise the new OSH framework and the Workplace Safety and Health Act which came into effect on 1 March 2006. OSHD will implement the new OSH framework through legislation, policies, capability building and engagement programmes. We will adopt a proactive and systemic approach in accident prevention and involve all stakeholders in risk management. We will also work closely with industry to facilitate risk management as well as to develop a stronger OSH culture. We will focus on the prevention of risks at source; set outcome goals for employers and help companies improve their safety and health management systems.

There are four Departments within OSHD:

Occupational Safety and Health Division

OSH Policy, Information and Corporate Services Department

The department drives the divisional efforts through sound policies & strategic planning while striving for organization excellence, and analyses and identifies emerging WSH trends and risks by leveraging on effective information systems, quality resources and astute business intelligence. The department also enhances organizational excellence through developing organizational capability, increasing staff competency level, improving staff engagement and work-life harmony as well as ensuring continuous improvement in customer responsiveness with the monitoring of customer standards.

OSH Inspectorate

The Inspectorate focuses on reducing safety and health risks at workplaces by conducting inspections, surveillance of workplaces and enforcing the law when necessary, to ensure that workplaces maintain an acceptable level of safety and health standard. The Inspectorate also investigates accidents and lessons learnt from the accidents are shared with the industry.

OSH Specialist Department

The department provides specialist support in the development of WSH standards and best practices, as well as the investigation of complex accidents and occupational diseases. The department conducts operational research, develops and implements strategies and targeted programmes for specific WSH hazards and industries. The department also collaborates with international organisations and national institutes in projects, information exchange, visits and training.

Work Injury Compensation Department

The department administers the Work Injury Compensation system to assist injured employees and dependants of deceased employees in claiming work injury compensation. It also administers the Incident Reporting system for reporting of workplace accidents, dangerous occurrences and occupational diseases.

Workplace Safety and Health Council Office

OSHD works closely with the Workplace Safety and Health Council to develop strategies to raise WSH standards in Singapore and to realise the national WSH 2018 Strategy. Through industry committees and key industry players, the WSH Council seeks to understand the inner workings of the industries, drive sectoral efforts and propose solutions to achieve sustainable improvement in WSH. The WSH Council also collaborates with industry stakeholders to raise WSH standards through programmes and recognition schemes, as well as drives efforts to increase the adoption of acceptable practices and build industry capability.