MOM Issues Guidelines to Better Protect Workers From Adverse Weather

Measures Cover Wider Range of Events, Like Floods, Strong Winds, Haze

- Shabana Begum

Workers here will be better protected from a wider range of adverse weather events, such as floods, strong winds, and haze, under a new set of guidelines released by the authorities on April 4.

These guidelines, released by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) and the Workplace Safety and Health Council, add to existing measures on protecting outdoor workers from heat stress.

For example, if wind gusts are expected, worksites must now take steps to secure loose equipment and temporary structures. During a deluge, workers in tunnels, basements, and excavation pits should be evacuated as those underground sites can collapse.

Climate change is expected to cause more extreme weather events. Over the years, weather events have claimed lives and caused injuries at worksites.

In the past five years, there were three workplace deaths linked to strong winds and lightning strikes, said Senior Minister of State for Manpower Zaqy Mohamad during a visit to a Housing Board Build-To-Order construction site in Ang Mo Kio.

In 2022, a worker died from head injuries when a 20-foot container office he was working in was blown off its steel support by strong wind during a heavy downpour. In July 2024, a worker deployed for antenna installation work at the open rooftop of a building collapsed when he was struck by lightning. He later died in hospital. Singapore has one of the highest rates of lightning strikes.